The Guardian and His Followers
by Storm VII
Summary: After defeating Sephiroth in the Advent Battle, Cloud is firmly resolved to move on with his life and focus on his family... So how the heck did he end up with a HAREM? Now accepting requests.
1. Prologue

Prologue

"What the hell are you doing beating my boys?!" a thug accused yelled. Behind him the weak moan of his thirty said 'boys' could be faintly heard. "Shut up you pansies! Bad enough you got beat! But in broad daylight! You're lucky if you can stay in the gang!"

Their short so called attacker sighed to himself. He had spiky raven hair that he had slicked back and blue eyes, the same color as the sky. He wore black jeans and a leather black jacket. Over his right shoulder he held a decently sized wooden practice sword. _Such compassion,_ he thought sarcastically _._

"Say something you bastard! What you think you're some kind of big, bad SOLDIER?! My gang is the most feared in the entire city! The continent even! I've still got my other bo-" The thug was abruptly cut off when his attacker slammed his closed fist into the thugs face, knocking out half of his teeth with that single punch.

As the man sprawled to the ground and passed out, the victor noticed that he had attracted a pretty large crowd. _So I got another group of thugs off the street, good news right?_ he thought.

"Is that Zack?"

"Yeah, looks like he went after another gang."

"Crazy kids gonna get killed doin' that."

"He should really leave that work to the police."

Zack sighed to himself. This hadn't been what he was hoping to hear. No 'thank you.' No 'Good job.' Nothing. Maybe he was chasing dreams after all. A scream was heard in the crowd as he saw a man approach him with twin knives drawn. Zack grinned, he did get a small thrill from this after all.

"So you're the guy that beat the boss? You don't look so tough!" The man with knives said while leering at Zack.

"I guess the pot does call the kettle black. Really man, knives?"

"Shut up you son of a bit-!" The ear-splitting slam of a fist hitting home was heard as the man was sent flying towards Zack. Zack dodged out of the way at the last second. He laughed at the rush he was getting from this, but when he saw who had landed the punch he knew there would be trouble.

"Care to explain, Zack?" the woman asked venomously as she approached Zack with her arms crossed. She had her brunet hair down past her shoulders and wore her black bartending cloths.

"Uh, I was just- ARGH!" Zack let out a cry of pain as the women grabbed his ear. "MOM I'M SORRY! LEAVE MY EAR OUT OF THIS!"

Tifa sighed to herself. This was how things always were with her son. She apologized to the crowed and proceed to take Zack towards her home (holding his ear the entire time).

"You're going to have some explaining to do to your father," Tifa said as the two approached the door to the Seventh Heaven. Since it was late Sunday the bar had been closed for the day, meaning Zack would have to endure another long lecture as soon as he got in.

As soon as he walked in the smell of Alfredo sauce hit his nose. _Creamy pasta for dinner (dad's home cooking no less) waiting for me after a long lecture… MY LIGHT AT THE END OF THE DARK TUNNEL!_

Stirring his homemade sauce was the now 31 year old hero of the Jenova war and the 'Guardian of the LifeStream,' Cloud Strife. He turned and saw his wife and son approaching him, and smiled at the two. "So… how was your day?"

Zack was about to answer and get the interrogation over with, but his thought betrayed him. "Great! I'm going to head upstairs and wash up! See you at dinner!"

Tifa Strife stood flabbergasted as her son raced upstairs in a heartbeat she crossed her arms and looked at her husband.

"He got into another fight, didn't he?" Tifa nodded at her husband's question.

Cloud sighed to himself as he returned to his cooking while Tifa began to set the table. When he was sure she wasn't looking he allowed himself a small smile. Even when it was his sever year old son, Zack would forever be a restless puppy.

 **Authors Note:**

 **My first Final Fantasy VII fanfic. I've always supported Cloud and Tifa as a couple and I still think that Zack would be a great name for Cloud's son. When he reappears later in the series he'll be in his late teens, so don't worry about being stuck with sever year old Zack for an entire series. Ciao.**

 **Final Fantasy 7 and all of its many characters are property of Square Enix. I own nothing.**


	2. Eight Years Earlier

_Post Advent Part I:_

Eight Years Earlier

 _You're right… I'm not alone._ Cloud thought those words as he smiled. Sephiroth had been beaten, those afflicted with the stigma (himself included) had found their cure, and he'd finally made his peace with Aerith. Cloud looked back to his friends. _And now, for them, it's time I stopped living in the past._

Cloud walked over to the edge of the water. Tifa knelt close to him and gently held out her hand to help him out of the water. "Take my hand," she said gently to him. He nodded as she slowly helped him out of the water.

"GAWDS!" they heard a certain ninja exclaim. "Can you two get ANY mushier!? I mean seriously, look at you two!" Cloud and Tifa blushed at Yuffie's accusation. The rest of their friends let out a laugh at their friend's expense, even Vincent gave a small grin. Cloud didn't know Vincent could smile.

"Well, Cloud and Tifa's _mushiness_ aside," Red XIII began, "Shouldn't we be going? I have the feeling that more families will be showing up before long, and this place is already crowded."

"Yeah, let's go," Cloud said beginning to walk out the church. Denzel had left the pool and followed closely behind his role model. _They look so much like a father and son,_ Tifa thought to herself smiling. It hadn't been the first time she'd seen this either, the two were just that close.

Cloud left the church and boarded the _Shera._ For once, he never looked back at the church. Upon entering the ship he found that his team had already picked up his swords and bike. Heading back to the ship's bridge, he found the entire gang eagerly discussing a celebration party.

"Let's all go to the Seventh Heaven and get drunk!" Yuffie exclaimed cheerfully.

Cloud deadpanned, he'd remembered when Cid had spiked Yuffie's water as a joke and the change in her behavior as a result. _Tifa, for the love of the LifeStream; don't let Yuffie anywhere near the liquor._ The events of that night were never to be spoken of again, with a death penalty from Cloud, Vincent, and Tifa.

"Now, that's an idea I can drink to!" Cid, their pilot, chuckled.

Cloud sighed to himself; not only had the pilot been absent to watch the result of his prank, but he was forgetting a key detail. _Doesn't Cid realize since he's the only one who could fly the Shera that automatically made him the DD?_

Cloud looked at Vincent and Tifa for support. The former of which simply shrugged, while the later decided to save him. "Maybe we can have the celebration tomorrow after everyone's rested and I have time to arrange a spread," Tifa suggested. "Cloud's probably still wounded anyways and this way, Cid can bring Shera." Yuffie however, didn't budge.

"Aww, no way! We've gotta enjoy the party NOW! Who cares about food when you have enough booze?! Booze that we can _use_ for Cloud's _wounds._ "

 _She made a rhyme about painfully treating me with alcohol… Okay, now I'm convinced that Yuffie remembers nothing of that night._ Cloud hadn't wanted to resort to this technique, but Yuffie's maturity, or lack of, brought this upon her. "Hey Yuffie, what happened to that Shiva materia I let you borrow? You know, the one that I had finally mastered after who knows how long and was going to use to fight Sephiroth the first time?" Cloud already knew Yuffie had either sold it or lost it; personally he had no problem with it (that's what the extra materia spawned from mastered ones is for), but she didn't know that.

Yuffie audibly gulped, a look of nervousness slowly began to show. "Tomorrow it is…" she said with a fake smile plastered on her face. Cloud faintly heard Cid mutter 'dick move' under his breath, but he didn't care. Crisis averted… for now.

Cid planned on landing the Shera on the outskirt of Edge. Cloud was in the ship's loading dock realigning his bike and swords with Tifa. He noticed her biting her lips, the cute way she always did when she tried asking him a favor.

"Do you need something?" Cloud asked kindly. He still partially felt that he had abandoned her, and though she'd already forgiven him, he knew that he'd do anything to help her… anything.

"I was just thinking, maybe you could ride back to the bar with Denzel on Fenrir… if it's alright with you, of course!" _Why is she so nervous? I was planning on doing that anyways._

"Sure thing," Cloud responded. "After enduring the stigma for so long, he's more than earned it. What about Marlene?"

"Barret and I will take her back; I think his exact words were 'I missed my baby too much! Daddy needs some bonding time!' I swear he'll never change."

"Yeah," Cloud agreed grinning; Barret always had been the overprotective father. He was silent for a moment before jokingly adding, "But are you sure he was talking about Marlene? It sure sounded like he could've meant you, Tifa."

"Hey!" Tifa shouted as she slapped Clouds arm as the ex-mercenary let out a small laugh. "Meanie…"

"Now you sound like Yuffie," Cloud smirked.

"Oh, so this is the thanks I get for keeping her away from the alcohol?" Tifa said sarcastically. "You know I could always run errands tomorrow while I leave Yuffie in your oh so _capable_ hands."

Cloud paled, he hadn't expected Tifa to retort like this. Even if he had scared Yuffie herself away for today, what happened the next day was another story. "You wouldn't…"

The staring contests between the two never took long, and Tifa once again kept her record of remaining undefeated.

"You win," Cloud admitted in defeat.

"I win what?" Tifa asked triumphantly. Every time these contests took place the loser always had to take care of one of the victor's chores, so they always translated into more work for Cloud.

"I'll make breakfast tomorrow," he decided.

"Good. We're out of OJ by the way, and we also need more bread."

"I'll pick them up at the store," Cloud assured her.

"Also, some more eggs wouldn't be bad."

"Anything else dear?" he responded mockingly.

In an unexpected move, Tifa wrapped her arms around Cloud's torso and pulled him into a hug. Cloud was speechless as Tifa told him, "Just, stay with us… please…"

"I promise," he said as he gently returned the hug. No more running, hiding, or avoiding. Now that Sephiroth was gone, his focus would be his family.

"UGH! MORE MUSHINESS!" came a voice from the doorway. The red faced couple turned to the source.

"YUFFIE!"

 **I don't own FINIAL FANTASY VII.**

 **I laughed as I wrote the ending. This fic will start off by recapping the events that took place during the time gap between Advent and DoC, and show Cloud and Tifa's developing relationship. It may take some time to get to the seven years later, but one thing at a time. Until next time.**


	3. Shadows of the Past

_Post Advent Part II:_

Shadows of the Past

Cloud brought his bike, Fenrir, to a slow stop just outside of the Seventh Heaven bar. He and Denzel started to get off the bike.

"When do you think the others will get back?" Denzel asked Cloud.

"Might take then awhile. I think they wanted to catch up with each other." Denzel nodded as Cloud gave him a small smile and opened the door to the bar. "Head upstairs and change into some fresh clothes, I don't think those geo-stigma stained clothes are the healthiest things to be wearing."

Denzel did as he was told while Cloud walked into to his old room and started organizing his old research papers. _Marlene's right, I really need to get my desk organized,_ Cloud thought as he looked at a clothes pile in the corner and sighed. _And the rest of my room._ He snapped out of his thoughts as he heard the bell downstairs ring, indicating someone coming into the bar. Cloud narrowed his eyes, Tifa and the others couldn't be back yet, and they wouldn't be back for at half hour at least.

Cloud slowly walked downstairs where he found a young woman, probably a year or two younger than he was, with Scarlet hair. She was wearing faded jeans and a navy jacket. She had a yellow file under her arm and looked at Cloud like she had been expecting him for some time now.

"Sorry, bars closed." Cloud said as he walked behind the counter, arms crossed. "Though I doubt an ex-Turk would be drinking here of all places."

"Oh, so you remember me?" the woman asked surprised. Her voice was soft and carefree, but Cloud never let down his guard.

"Afraid, I don't. I can just tell by how you're analyzing everything in this bar at once and your posture. I've fought the Turks too many times to let something like that slip. So care to explain who you are?"

"My name's Cissnei," she said. Cloud narrowed her eyes, the name **did** sound familiar. "I was a friend of Zack's when I served Shin-Ra."

"You knew Zack? That's surprising… what did you mean when you asked if I remembered you?"

"I would've been surprised if you had. The last time I saw you, you were suffering from Mako addiction after escaping Nibelheim."

"Well, I doubt that you're here to catch up on old times. Why are you here?"

"I came across a few old Shin-Ra secrets and my organization, MATRIX, needs your help."

"MATRIX, you mean that newspaper network that tried to report on Shin-Ra's doings? I thought they had disbanded after Shin-Ra had bought their press and their secrets." Cloud heard the water turn on upstairs indicating the Denzel had decided to take a shower.

"Shin-Ra only managed to purchase back the secrets that they knew we had, and we never disbanded. Having Shin-Ra buy our secrets not only erased their suspicions of us, it also gave us the funding we need in order to continue our investigations. We were able to come across a few of their more important secrets, but it seemed that your group was performing our work at a faster rate, so we decided to focus on giving you cover instead."

"So in short, I owe you?" Cloud asked, glaring at Cissnei. To his surprise, she shook her head.

"You don't owe me anything. I'm here to offer you a case." Cissnei handed Cloud the file in her arms. Cloud started to read over it as Cissnei continued. "We've recently discover what appears to be an old Shin-Ra biological lab. We believe there to be important information in there, but the problem is the security inside. Somehow the creatures inside are still alive and ready to kill. And their machines may be the old models, but there are far too many to deal with."

"So you need me to act as hired muscle," Cloud asked before closing the file and sliding it back to the ex-Turk. "Sorry, I gave up being a mercenary a long time ago, find someone else."

"Cloud, what's your fee for your most premium rush?" Cissnei asked.

"Why does it matter?"

"I'm willing to pay triple that for this one job," Cissnei paused before adding. "I didn't want to have to say this, but the lab belonged to both Hojo and Professor Gast."

"…You're trying to make this personal," Cloud stated. "Fine, but I can't go in there blind. "

"We might not have been able to hack the mainframe, but we did manage to hack the security cameras. You'll also have our entire staff available via radio," Cissnei assured him.

"What do you want with the information?"

"To see if it can direct us to any more of Hojo's old labs or projects."

"And what happens to the lab once I'm done?" Cloud asked.

"We burn it to the ground, just like the others," Cissnei said somewhat darkly before getting up to leave. "Meet us in Costa del Sol in eight days. And Cloud…?"

"Yeah?"

"I heard Zack had chosen you to be his living legacy; I'd say he chose right." And with that, Cissnei left the Seventh Heaven.

 _I doubt Tifa's going to be happy to hear this,_ Cloud thought to himself. _In fact, I think facing down genetically modified and altered super beasts is the safer of the two…_

*Later that night*

"YOU'RE DOING WHAT?"

 _I hate it when I'm right,_ Cloud thought sadly.

Everyone had either gone to stay on the Highwind, find a hotel, or (in Barret's case) sleep in the guest room. Cloud and Tifa were downstairs discussing Cloud's newest 'job.'

"Cloud, why are you doing this? You're finally back after Gaia knows how long and now you want to leave!?" Tifa was glaring daggers at Cloud, who didn't even attempt to defend himself. He wanted her to get mad at him and get her frustration out now.

"Fine," Tifa finally decided. To say Cloud was shocked would have been the understatement of the century. "You can go, but only because I'm going with you."

 _Shit._ "Tifa, I can't take you with me. If something happens to you, what about Marlene and Denzel?"

"That's why I'm going with you. They need you just as much as they need me, Cloud. I can handle myself, just trust me. I know you're doing this because of Hojo, but ending his legacy means just as much to me as it does you."

"But Tifa-"

"But nothing! I'm not losing you again Cloud Strife!"

Cloud sighed; he knew he couldn't talk Tifa out of this one. "Alright, you can come with me, but who's going to watch the kids?"

"Barret, who else?"

"That ain't gonna fly Teef." Tifa turned to see Barret standing by the fridge, grabbing himself a glass of water. "Room for one more Spiky?"

"Wouldn't you still come if I said no?" Cloud asked with a small grin.

"Damn straight."

 **Authors Note: I decided to bring Cissnei as part of this fanfiction to play a significant role in the first part at least. Anyone who doesn't know who she is should check Crisis Core. Anyways, who's ready to see the original trio back in action? Rate and Review, until next time. Ciao.**

 **I do not own FINAL FANTASY.**


	4. A New Development

_Post Advent Part III:_

A New Development

"So remind me again how a small, private party turned into a festival, not that I'm complaining."

Cloud and Tifa were both in the Seventh Heaven's kitchen arranging a spread of Tifa's best dishes. The event that Cloud had in question was a festival around Edge that would be starting around two. The old Avalanche gang had decided to attend the festival instead of their personal party.

"Because the geo-stigma's finally gone and the children are finally starting to return to their families. Honestly Cloud, it'd be strange if people didn't make a big deal about this. I think we can all afford some celebration after what we've been through."

Cloud nodded. "Yeah, but I don't see why it has to last for a half day."

Tifa gave small laugh as she started tossing her Caesar Salad. "Cloud, do you even know what letting your hair down means? You could use a break after all you've been through. I mean, come on. you went to the Summer Festival back in Nibelheim, right?"

"…No."

"You didn't?" Tifa was aghast. "I thought that you'd at least gone once."

Cloud shrugged. "I was socially awkward back then, remember? Didn't really have anyone to go with." Cloud tried to keep his attention to Tifa and the mini subs he was making, but his was also eyeing a platter of fresh cookies. And not just any cookies, Tifa's homemade double chocolate fudge, his all time favorite. And to make things worse, the chocolate chips were still melted, his favorite time to eat them. They were meant for the festival and he was fighting hard to remind himself that.

"Do me a favor?" he heard Tifa ask. Cloud pried his attention away from the plate of chocolate goodness. "I know that you're going with the kids, but by the end of today, do something you want to do. It doesn't have to be something big, just try to do something nice."

"All right," Cloud said before finally giving in to his temptation. He slowly reached across the counter for one of the cookies. **SLAP!** Cloud quickly brought his hit hand back after being caught by Tifa. The bartender had a bemused look on her face. Cloud then came up with the lamest excuse he could have. "Well, enjoying a warm cookie sounded nice."

He at least got a laugh out of his childhood friend and they shared a cookie as a result.

*The Festival*

Cloud had to say, the people of Edge certainly knew how to celebrate. Though the plaza monument had been shattered due to Bahamut, the entire area had been cleared of rubble and was now aligned with different stalls. Some of them games, some of them palm reading and things like that, a there were a few other food stands selling homemade goods. A quarter of the plaza was filled with people talking and setting things up.

Currently, he was with Denzel, Marlene, and some of the children he'd saved while Tifa was managing the stall she had set up with the food they had made at the bar. While the two had made quite a bit, Cloud doubted it would last long, given Tifa's expertise at cooking. Meanwhile, Denzel was with him trying to pop those blasted balloons.

Cloud swore that stall owner had conned them and made the balloons using a type of thick rubber. When Denzel asked Cloud to try the game for him, the ex-SOLDIER showed no mercy. After paying the fee, Cloud took three darts in one hand, made a simple swipe with his arm, and tore through the reinforced rubber (called it!) with all of the darts. Three darts, three balloons, one throw. The look on the stall-keeper's face was priceless as he grudgingly gave Cloud the stuffed Moogle doll Denzel had been trying to win for Marlene.

After Cloud won at a few more stalls (at the 'knock over the stack of bottles game' he only had to start winding up the pitch before its stall owner shakily told him he won) and letting the kids go their own way, Cloud headed over for the Seventh Heaven booth.

"Having fun?" Tifa asked him smiling. Cloud gave a small smile and simply shrugged. He noticed Yuffie next to Tifa holding her mouth in desperation not to laugh.

"What's so funny?" he had to ask.

"I didn't think you had it in you, chocobo head! It looks like you managed to snag a few admirers!" When Cloud looked at the kids from earlier, Yuffie only laughed harder. "Not them, the ones over by the monument!"

A group of women seemed to be eyeing Cloud from the distance. Many of them were in their late teens and were eyeing the new savior in a way that sent shivers down his spine. Due to his Mako enhanced hearing, he could vaguely make out what they were saying despite the distance between them… let's just say it was more than enough to make Cloud blush.

 _Not the crowd I want to deal with right now,_ Cloud thought. "Hey Teef, go out with Yuffie and have fun, I'll take the stall for a bit."

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely, now get going."

When Cloud took over the stall, he noticed quite a bit more business coming his way. Some of them were girls that had been eyeing him, but he did his best to fight off their advances. Half an hour later, he was running low on food, but everyone had been served. He noticed Tifa talking with Barret, Cid, and Shera while Yuffie was dragging Vincent, Red XIII, and the kids from stall to stall.

"Having fun, Cloud?"

Cloud turned and saw Reeve with a small grin on his face. "Yeah, I guess so. Everyone seems to be pretty happy here. You did a pretty good job organizing this event."

"Well, I figured a celebration is always in order after a pandemic. The only problem we've had is setting up the music for dancing later, but I think we're almost ready."

 _Dancing_. Cloud had never been one for dancing, but his mother had at least taught him the basics when he was younger. Normally, he'd never consider dancing, but… _Something I want to do._

"Reeve, can I ask a favor?" His friend nodded. "Take over the stall for a bit. I'll be back."

Reeve gave a small chuckle. "Sure thing."

Cloud walked towards Tifa's group. Cid and Barret gave him their usual greeting as he simply nodded. "Hey Tifa, can you come with me for a moment?" Tifa looked surprised, but nodded as she proceeded to follow Cloud.

"Play nice you two!" Cid called mockingly, earning him a slap on the arm from Shera.

"So where are we going?" Tifa asked.

Cloud blushed slightly. "Well, you told me earlier to do something nice, so I came up with something."

Tifa smiled. "And you wanted to do it with me. That's nice. What did you have in mind?"

"Dancing." Cloud was starting to have second thoughts about this. What if he messed up, what if she didn't want to, what if-

"Oh, I'd love to! It's been forever since I've been dancing."

 _Leave it to Tifa to know exactly what to say,_ Cloud thought. _Now that I think about it, I've never really danced with a partner before. Ah well, at least we'll warm up with some other songs first._

"HELLO MIDGAR!" the DJ called out to the crowd. "SORRY FOR THE DELAY, BUT TO COMPENSATE LET'S START THE NIGHT OF WITH OUR FIRST COUPLES SONG!"

 _Already!? But I wanted to wait before dancing with her. Wait… couples song?!_ Cloud blushed as he faced Tifa who simply smiling.

"I take it this wasn't part of the plan?"

Cloud simply shrugged, for some reason Tifa's casual joking gave him the courage he needed. "I just wanted a warm up first, but I guess I'll have to make due."

He gave a small smile as he gave his partner a mock bow. Tifa laughed as she returned it will a pretend curtsy. The first song was slower one, so Cloud was able to get his warm up after all. Turns out, he wasn't as rusty as he had thought and the two proceeded to dance completely in sync with one another. The two lost track of everything else while they danced in each other's arms losing themselves in their partners eyes. When the couple's songs ended after about an hour the two walked toward the edge of the central square standing by one another in relative silence. That's when Tifa glanced over her shoulder and saw the group of fan girls from before, all of them fuming.

"Seems that they're jealous," she commented, causing Cloud to glance behind him.

 _I said I'd always be there for Tifa, but… is this right?_ Cloud made his decision.

"Then they're going to hate what happens next." Before Tifa could question him, Cloud gently brought his lips to hers. Their kiss lasted for about ten seconds, and when they pulled away, Cloud whispered so that only Tifa could hear. These were the words she thought always thought were meant for another, but filled her heart with joy.

" _I love you."_

 **Not completely used to writing romance yet, but hey, I liked it (hopefully you do as well). Sorry if you guys were expecting the mission for this chapter. I promise that it's going to be the complete focus for the next chapter; I just couldn't throw this idea out. Next chapter should be up by Monday. Thanks for your support! Ciao.**

 **I don't own FINAL FANTASY VII.**


	5. Preparation and Briefing

_Post Advent Part IV:_

Preparation and Briefing

Cloud, Barret, and Tifa were in Costa del Sol trying to survive the heat being brought down by the midsummer sun. Though all of them had been here before, none of them had remembered it being so damn hot. The three of them had traveled by ferry to get there after leaving Denzel and Marlene with Vincent. Cloud had mixed feelings about it; Vincent didn't look like a guy who was used to babysitting, but then again if he could handle Yuffie, those two would be a cake walk.

Cloud saw Cissnei sitting at a newly opened restaurant called _Café sur la Mer_ sipping on what appeared to be iced tea while reading a book. While the weather was extremely hot, she was wearing her old Turk suit (resized of course). She glanced up and saw the three approaching. "Glad to see you made it, but I wasn't expecting additional company," she said before marking the page and closing the book. "I'm Cissnei," she introduced herself to Barret and Tifa as the two did likewise.

"These two weren't going to take no for an answer I'm afraid," Cloud admitted. "This isn't a problem, is it?"

"If anything, this will increase your chances of breaking through the monsters, so no. We just uncovered a report that Hojo was in the middle of developing a new monster in this lab; one that meant to put even SOLDIER's to shame. An 'Alpha,' if you will. Not much to go on, but we're pretty sure it's Behemoth based."

A waitress came out from the inside of the restaurant with a butter glazed croissant in a paper wrap, which he set in front of Cissnei, who thanked her and paid her check. The waitress was about to walk back inside, but paused when she caught sight of Cloud. She stared at the blonde swordsman for a moment before blushing and walking inside. Cloud merely rolled his eyes while Tifa softly sighed. Barret gave a small chuckle while Cissnei fought back a giggle.

"I'd hate to see how the beach goers react to you in a swimsuit," she said jokingly as she grabbed the wrapped treat and stood. "The car's out back. Follow me."

The drive to the base wasn't anything to interesting, the group merely discussed strategy. Cloud was going to be their front lines melee fighter with his sword, Tifa would play support with her magic and assist Cloud however she could with her martial arts, and Barret was their long-range gunslinger, per the norm.

The group saw the research facility from afar, it only looked like a somewhat large, single floor building made out of concrete, but Cissnei had explained that there were 10 sublevels to the building. The power reactor is on the ninth sub-floor and the database on the tenth. Cissnei also handed Cloud a strange earpiece and told him to try it once they got in.

Breaking in turned out to be easier than expected, a couple of button pushes and the heavy doors slid open, the first floor was empty, aside from a very small amount of lighting. The doors closed behind them as Barret transformed his arm into gun mode with Tifa put on her fighting gloves and equipped her materia. Cloud had already set his sword (he still rarely left Seventh Heaven without them) so he decided to try the earpiece.

Putting a finger to his left ear he spoke, "Is it working?"

"Perfectly well," Cissnei's voice came from the other side. "I was a little worried that we wouldn't be able to get through, but we seem to be doing fine."

"So this thing's just a radio?" Cloud had to ask.

"A heavily modified radio, yes. It has three setting allowing you to call different people depending on the information required and can go through quite a few layers of solid ground. I'm the one who studied most of the building layout and engineering, so I'll be the contacting you along how to progress. I'm pretty sure you know our mechanical analyst quite well."

"Huh?"

"Hey Cloud, it's been a while." The Savior froze, the last time he'd heard that voice had been…

"Jessie…?" he asked shocked. Barret and Tifa looked up from their preparations. All three of them had known the woman in question very well and had thought that she'd died over two years ago when Shinra had destroyed the Sector Seven slums by crushing it.

"Sorry I haven't told you anything, since the plate fell things have been busy and… I needed some time to cope after losing Biggs and Wedge." That had shattered the other hope that Cloud carried, but having an old ally alive was more than he could ever ask for. "After I escaped that massacre, I joined MATRIX and became its chief engineer. I know my way around Shinra tech like the back of my hand now. I know how to build it and more importantly, how to break it. If you want to have Barret help you with the mechs, you'll have to use his Mako pulse gun to have any effect."

"I'll keep that in mind, and Jessie?"

"Yeah Cloud?"

"Avalanche is glad to have you again, Welcome back."

"Thanks Cloud, the next guy actually has some personal reasons to take down Hojo, I'll put you through."

"Mr. Strife," another voice sounded over the radio, this on male. "My name is Keith; I used to be Hojo's right hand man before the Nibelheim incident."

"I remember reading about you. You were the one that had purposely sent some of his experiments loose in Midgar."

"Yes, and I can't say that was my proudest moment. I thought that Midgar needed to be destroyed in order for us to pay for our sins, but your close friend Zack stopped me." _Zack stopped him? The papers had told me it was Sephiroth. Good job getting your facts straight, media._ "While I was locked in my prison I had several years to think to myself before your riot allowed me to escape. I fled from Midgar and joined Matrix shortly afterwards. Now my only opponents are the remnants of Shinra and more importantly, Professor Hojo."

"That's quite the jail sentence; you were in there for how long?"

"Long enough to know what I needed to do with my life. Contact me if you need any information considering the bio weapons, I can still remember studying their anatomy with Hojo like it was yesterday, so I can help you find the weaknesses that you need to."

"What can you tell me about the 'Alpha'?"

"Not much, I'm afraid," Keith admitted. "I had never personally looked over those papers, but when I had asked Professor Hojo about it, he told me that one it was finished, it could put Sephiroth in the ground. I honestly think he was exaggerating, but be careful."

"Understood."

Cissnei was back on after that. "The door to the next staircase should be just ahead. This place was designed so that you'd have to travel every floor to reach to bottom. Be careful, there are some areas that you won't be able to talk to us in, due to frequency jammers, but if you can reroute the power that should disable them. Contact us with the radio if you need assistance."

"Don't worry," Cloud said smirking. "I'll call if we're starting to feel lonely."

 **Mission Start. I thought on how I could make the mission interesting, and I decided that adding in codec calls could be a nice touch. Jessie is from the beginning of the original FFVII who was the bomber for Avalanche. Keith was a nameless scientist in Crisis Core who caused Zack to go on special missions close to the end of the game. Read, Review, and thanks for the support. Ciao.**

 **I don't own Final Fantasy or the Codec from Metal Gear Solid.**


	6. The Mad Scientist's Legacy

_Post Advent Part V:_

The Mad Scientist's Legacy

Cloud brought out first Tsurugi in its base form and one of his other sword edges; he'd save the others for when he needed them. Tifa walked over to the terminal and tried to activate it, allowing her to open the door to the first floor. 'Please insert code card' the terminal displayed. Tifa looked at her teammates for ideas, Barret simply shrugged as Cloud gestured towards the door. She sighed, walked over to the locked door… and made a entrance with her fist.

"When there's no door, make one," she said smugly.

"WARNING! WARNING! BREAK IN CURRENTLY IN PROGRESS! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL!" came the sound of an automatic speaker. Several Sweepers were activated in the newly opened hallway. They aimed their guns at the door and let loose a barrage of bullets. Cloud and the others made their way to the side of the rubble, but the machines kept firing. Other models, such as Flame Sweepers (pretty basic, Sweepers with flamethrowers) started moving closer to the three.

Tifa's gloves glowed brightly as she cast a Wall spell over Cloud. The swordsman nodded to her before signaling to Barret. The gunslinger smiled as he let out a barrage of bullets at the Flame Sweepers. At least one of his bullets hit the fuel tank causing the war machine to explode, destroying many sweepers in the process.

Cloud leapt through the explosion, his barrier protecting him from the crimson flames, and cutting one of the Sweepers in half with his swords. One of the other mechs tried to take aim at Cloud, only to be blasted by Barret's Mako pulse gun. Jessie hadn't been lying, it was effective. Two additional sweepers were torn apart as they were hit by a blast of lightning from Tifa. The three remaining Sweepers targeted Cloud, who ran at them full force, his barrier blocking the bullets as he cut the three to pieces.

Cloud reset his additional sword and put a finger to his radio. "Cissnei, we've cleared off the first sub-level."

"Already? I guess I should have expected work like this from the best."

"Please, now you're just flattering us."

Cissnei gave a small girlish giggle. Despite Cloud's better judgment and new found relationship with Tifa, he actually found it… cute. "Is it really flattery if it's well deserved?"

"Whatever, what does the next floor have?"

"Just a few more mechs," Cissnei confirmed. "Honestly, after that you should be done before you face the 'Alpha'. The other floors are for office work, recreation, or lab storage."

"What about the 'Alpha's' position?" Cloud had to ask. "Can your design specs tell us anything about that?"

"I just now finished hacking into the security cameras. I can't say for sure, but I'd say there's a pretty strong likelihood you'll find it on floor eight."

"What's that based off of?"

"That's the only floor without cameras. It's also the one of the three floors that we don't have full blue prints for. Anyways, just keep making your way down."

The group made their way down to the second level where they found a group of three Chain Sweepers, which was easily dealt with by Cloud sword, Barret's gun, and Tifa's martial arts (long story short, her mech found itself in the wall).

"This really all they got…!" Barret huffed. "'Was expecting somethin' a little better from a bastard like Hojo!"

No sooner had he finished saying those words, than the ground began to shake beneath their feet. "You had to say it," Tifa said groaning.

The storage doors opened and from the darkness emerged a Scorpion mech. This wasn't just any Scorpion mech. However, this model had three tails, one a laser model, one a water cutter, and the last one a flame thrower. It had to sets of dual rail guns equipped to it and carried a high frequency lightning field emitter. It regarded the three newcomers threw its laser sighting and-

 ** _Shing!_**...Found itself being cut, right down the middle by Cloud's **Blade Beam**. The short lived model let off a series of explosions as it was ultimately destroyed. Cloud nonchalantly reset his sword.

"Show off," he heard Tifa say to him playfully. Cloud looked at his girlfriend and grinned.

"Well with you around, I kind of have to."

Barret chuckled. "I'm starting to see what Yuffie's sayin'," he said causing the three of them to laugh.

Cloud forced open the door to the third sub-floor, and was immediately hit with a powerful odor, even stronger smelling to him due to his Soldier enhancements. He cringed as he looked around expecting this to be the lab room, but only found a poorly lit floor of office cubicles. He turned on the radio.

"Cissnei, we're on the third floor. Is this supposed to be the office level?"

"According to the blueprints it is, why do you ask?"

"Something in this place reeks," Cloud said walking into one of the office cubicles. "I found the source; downsizing."

"What do you-?"

"Shin-Ra style downsizing," he confirmed as he looked at one of the office workers, shot through the chest. "Someone killed these people and then left without bothering to clean up the mess."

"That's terrible," Cissnei admitted. "What type of wounds do they have?"

"Gun wounds," Cloud said getting a closer look. "Whoever it was, they weren't skill at using firearms. These shots are too chaotic and poorly aimed to be one of the Turks or an Assassin." Upon closer examining the body, Cloud saw that the employee had a key card on his body. He took the key card and held it up in the remaining light. "I managed to find a key card, any telling what it goes to?"

"If the specs are right, it should be to an elevator on the far end of the room from the stairs. The elevator should take you all the way to the seventh floor."

"Got it," Cloud said.

"But... Cloud?"

"What is it?" Cloud could easily tell Cissnei was nervous on the other end of the phone.

"The seventh floor was supposed to be Hojo's lab. You're not going to like what you find in there."

"All the more reason to burn this place to the ground once we're done," Cloud said darkly. "If facing old trauma's going to cause the end of Hojo's work, I'll be fine. One way or another, this has to get done."

"Good point, just… be careful," Cissnei said before canceling the transmission.

The elevator the group was on provided them a shortcut, but was moving at a snails' pace. Cloud noticed Tifa shuffling nervously on her feet. "What's wrong?" he asked, concerned.

"It's seeing those people that reminded me what Shin-Ra was really capable of," Tifa admitted. "I know we all decided to put it behind us, but… just seeing those corpses there, it almost reminded me…"

Cloud noticed Barret nodding and could obviously tell what the two were thinking. Tifa was remembering her father, who'd died at the hands of Sephiroth when he had massacred all of Nibelheim in a single night. Barret was remembering the slaughter of his village and the loss of his wife at the hands of Scarlet, Shin-Ra's late weapons specialist. Cloud had also been reminded by those corpses. Seeing his own mother killed by Sephiroth, Zack who had sacrificed himself so that Cloud could live for them both as he fought off countless Shin-Ra military squads, and Aerith who had also died to Sephiroth, but did so in order to save the planet and activate Holy. The three may have moved on from the past, but the wounds were still fresh in their minds.

The three said nothing as the door to the labs opened. Cloud glared at the room. It reminded him of the laboratory in the Shin-Ra mansion. A blood stained work bench in the center of the room was surrounded with several rusty tools. In side several large test tubes was horrific experiments which were connected to long rubber tubes. Cloud growled under his breath as he grabbed his sword hilt. He wasn't about to leave this place standing.

"Cloud wait!" sounded Keith on the radio you can't.

"Damn it Keith! Is this what you were after!?" Cloud yelled into his radio. "I thought you wanted me to end Hojo's work not salvage it! You told me that you wanted nothing more than to destroy his work!"

"And I still do," Keith said patiently over the other end of the phone. "Just hear me out, okay?"

"You have ten seconds," Cloud said harshly.

"Hojo left a fail safe for situations like this. If one of the test tubes is broken, the others experiments will be activated and set to their 'kill mode'. Just getting near the experiment is a problem enough. While they look like corpses, those experiments are still alive. All of them have been modified so that they can survive in hibernation mode off of only one millimeter of Mako for a full month. Any emotion they once had human or otherwise is gone; the only thing they have left is the thought to kill in the most savage ways possible."

"Then how do you destroy them?"

"I think I have a solution for that," Jessie said into the radio. "The tubes that the creatures are in are part of a precisely calibrated system. A strong enough shock to their power source will destroy all of them."

"There's an electric current control close to the door," Cissnei confirmed. "Hit it with a strong enough lightning attack and the overload will take care of the rest."

Cloud nodded to Tifa, who blasted the control terminal with a full force Thundaga. There were small explosions all around the room as all of the test tubes shattered and broke. All of the experiments were in the center of the explosions and Cloud was again hit with the smell of death and fire.

"It's done," he said darkly into the radio. "I'm heading towards the 'Alpha'.

Tifa and Barret said nothing to Cloud as he emotionlessly walked through the wreckage. The all proceeded down into the staircase before finding the door already open. The Alpha, an experiment that was rumored to rival the might of Sephiroth, was nothing but a deformed corpse now. The best had defiantly been Behemoth based at one point, but was horribly misshapen and several of its parts were now mechanical. Other parts of its body had been horribly mutated due to chemicals and experimentation. In the beast's unmoving eyes, Cloud only saw pain.

"The Alpha's already dead," Cloud said into the radio while walking towards floor nine. "It looks like Hojo abandoned this experiment a long time ago and left the thing to die."

"It sounds like something he'd do," Keith said remorsefully into the radio. "What a cruel waste of life."

"I have to agree with you there," Cloud said as he walking into the ninth room and spotted the data terminal. "Cissnei, we have bad news."

"Just a second, take the radio out of your ear." Cloud did as instructed. "There, I switched to loudspeaker mode so that we could hear each other, what's the problem."

"Main frame's already busted," Barret said looking over the broken machinery before spotting something in the floor. "Looks like someone did it with an axe. Probably the same bastard that offed the office workers."

"Screen's still frozen," Cloud said looking at the terminal. "It looks like all of the data was extracted June 8th, three years ago."

Realization dawned on Tifa, "That's two days before we first arrived at Costa del Sol."

Barret realized where she was going, "And on the beach we saw…"

"Hojo," Cloud confirmed darkly.

"Damn it," Keith swore over the radio. "What was that sick bastard looking for here?"

"You've done all that you can there Cloud," Cissnei said over the radio. "Get out of there now."

None of them had to be told twice. Cissnei told Cloud that she'd visit the Seventh Haven in a few days to tell him what they'd found and to personally confirm payment. On the boat ride back Cloud and Tifa stood at the ship's bow staring over the railing, while Barret decided to catch up on some sleep in his cabin.

"You alright?" Cloud finally asked his childhood crush.

Tifa sighed. "I think I'm the one who should be asking you that. You were the one that had to endure… that. Now I know you had trouble moving on."

"Yeah," Cloud admitted. "But you know how I managed to?" Tifa shook her head before Cloud gently set his hand over hers. "I had you."

Tifa smiled. "We had each other."

 **Authors Note:**

 **Final Fantasy is owned by Square Enix.**

 **Well… that was certainly a darker chapter. Sorry if you were expecting an epic battle with the Alpha. I thought about it for a while before deciding there was little way I could pull it off if there was such little space. Plus, with those three there, the poor sucker didn't stand a chance. Anyways, I'll see you all next chapter. Ciao.**


	7. Not as Planned

_Post Advent Part VI:_

Not as Planned

As any expert bar owner would, Tifa had a hidden talent for noticing when one of her customers was about to become intoxicated. It was a useful ability to have because it prevented people from having an evening they'd later regret, or needing Cloud to show them to the door with no small amount of force… more than often both happened. She was currently having one such customer coming closer and closer to drunkenness, a customer she'd never thought would be the type to drink herself into stupor, in fact, she couldn't remember the last time Elena drank alone.

"Another," Elena said after downing her fifth shot glass of _Tomberry Spicer_ … in the last hour. Elena was certainly starting to feel more than just a light buzz, but after the week she had, the Turk didn't care. While she wasn't the type to believe in drowning your problems with alcohol, the less she thought about her current problems, the better.

"I think that's enough for now," Tifa said sweetly while prepare the Turk a cool glass of water. Cloud was also on the other side of the counter, cleaning glasses from the previous lunch rush. It was the slowest time of day and Elena was the only customer in the bar. It didn't feel right to Tifa to have her drinking so much without offering some advice. "This isn't like you, tell me what happened."

"This week happened," Elena said burying her head in her arms groaning. "First I had to work extended shifts Monday through Wednesday."

"That seems tough, but-"

"Oh, and by extended shifts, I mean EIGHTEEN HOURS! I swear, how can Rufus be so cruel?"

Cloud scoffed at that last remark. Though he'd told everyone about Rufus's survival, none of them had believed he had completely changed. Sure he was quieter and stuck closer to the shadows now, but Cloud had known Rufus to be an especially cunning individual. It made him worry Rufus was setting another one of his plans in motion. Needless to say, relations between Rufus and Avalanche were… interesting at best. Not aggressive, but interesting.

"But that isn't even the worst part about it!" Elena continued her rant while Tifa tried to convince her to have some water. "After that fiasco I went into work on Thursday only to have Reno change my regular coffee with decaf as a prank. Pair that with the lack of sleep, and I passed out on my desk in minutes. Then, when I finally wake up after office hours, I find Tseng in his office… MAKING OUT WITH HIS SECRETARY!"

Her scream caught Cloud completely off guard. He fumbled around with the glass he'd been wiping and barely managed to catch it before it hit the floor. When he brought it back up to the table he say Elena with tears in her eyes, the Ex-Mercenary felt sorry for her, she'd always cherished her relationship with Tseng, Elena must've been devastated right now.

"Then when I talk to him about it, he admitted that he's been cheating on me for over a month, A MONTH!" Elena slumped her head. "Even I never made out with him, all we'd done was had dinner together and kiss. He's saying that I'm too young for him. It was so awkward going into work today and seeing him after our break up I had to leave early. I can't believe this happened to me."

Tifa nodded in understanding. "That must be hard for you, but I still think it's important for you to move on. Maybe you could try finding someone else to date? There are still plenty of singles out in Edge."

Elena gave a weak laugh. "If it was that simple I would already be looking. All I ever come across are idiots who constantly catcall me and perverts that try to grab my ass."

Cloud narrowed his eyes. That had explained why he'd seen so many people offering the Turk drinks today. He'd been glad that none of those people had been any of their regulars; most of them had been drifters looking for work. "Then why don't you try dating someone you already know," he suggested, breaking his longstanding silence. "Much as I hate him, you could try dating Reno. Or what about Rude? He's actually a pretty nice guy."

Elena shook her head. "I can't date either of those two, they already have a great bromance going on and I don't want to be the one to ruin it. Rufus is out too because I don't want to date my employer."

 _Reno and Rude have a great bromance?_ Cloud thought to himself. He'd always known the two to always be together for missions, drinks, or whatever, but were the two actually in some sort of relationship? He shook the thought out of his head. "Anyone else?"

"No," Elena said downcast. "The only other half-decent guy I can think of is you, but I can see you're already taken."

 _Half-Decent?_ Cloud thought, a bit dubiously at that. _I thought I was better than that._

"Then why don't you two go on a date?" Tifa suggested out of nowhere.

Cloud almost lost another glass by knocking it to the floor; luckily his enhanced reflexes reacted in time… again. _Is Tifa serious?_ He noticed Elena's reaction and could tell that she her face was even redder now, and he was pretty sure it wasn't from alcohol.

"B-b-b-but don't you two have a thing?" she said, not making eye contact with Cloud.

Tifa gave a small smile. "We do, but I don't think one date between the two of you is going to kill our relationship. Besides, I'm the one suggested it, so it's not like Cloud's cheating on me."

Elena continued to blush. "Well okay, I guess… so does seven work? We can meet at that new Sushi bar in town."

Cloud was about to intervene, before Tifa beat him to it. "I can close early tonight so I won't need Cloud. I think that'll work fine, won't it Cloud?" Cloud tried to get a word in, but Tifa stopped him. "Of course it does, well go on!" she commanded Elena. "You still need to get ready for tonight, don't you?"

Elena nodded before leaving the Gil as payment for her drinks and rushing out of there, one thought repeating in her mind the entire time. As the author I believe it was: _OhmygawdOhmygawdOhmygawdOhmygawdOhmygawdOhmygawdOhmygawdOhmygawdOhmygawdOhmygawdOhmygawdOhmygawdOhmygawd!_

But that's just my theory.

After she was gone Cloud looked to Tifa questioningly. "You realize what you just did right?"

Tifa nodded. "I gave her a chance to spend an evening with a good person and remind her there are more people out there to focus on instead of her Ex. You remember how those girls back at Nibelheim reacted every time they had break up with their boyfriends."

Cloud nodded. A few of those times things had gotten pretty drastic which resulted in quite a few misfortunes. "All right I'll go, but only this once."

Tifa nodded. "Don't worry; this is just to get her back on her feet. I swear this is the only time."

How wrong she'd be…

*Time Skip*

It was close to six-thirty and Cloud had just finished getting his clothes ready for his evening out. He was currently in the middle of putting on his old cologne when he heard Denzel call from downstairs.

"Cloud! Cissnei's here!"

Cloud finished applying the scented liquid before heading downstairs. Cissnei was waiting for him, carrying a metal suitcase which contained payment for the laboratory job. She smiled as she regard Cloud in his new attire. "What's the occasion?"

Cloud was wearing a light blue semi-formal button up shirt and khaki slacks. "I have a pseudo-date."

"Pseudo-date?" Cissnei asked confused.

"With Elena, she just broke up with Tseng, so Tifa thought it'd be nice if I tried to cheer her up. Not sure how this is going to work."

"Huh," Cissnei said simply. "Anyways, here's your money for last week's job." She gave the suitcase to Cloud, who opened it to find the promised amount of Gil and a few additional documents. "Those documents are some of our findings in what we could salvage from the mainframe. Not a lot to go off of, but we'll let you know if we find anything else."

Cloud nodded his head and Cissnei proceeded to walk towards the door, but not before looking back at Cloud for an extended moment. Her expression almost seemed… longing. The man himself was oblivious to this as he was busy reading his documents. Cissnei shook her head and left the Seventh Heaven, somewhat disappointed with herself.

 _What was that about?_ Denzel thought perplexed.

*Time Skip*

Elena was waiting for Cloud outside the sushi restaurant they'd decided to meet up at. It was a busy night at the restaurant, but she'd already planned for that by making reservations. She didn't have to wait long as Cloud walked up to the restaurant in his more formal attire. Elena herself had debated what to wear for over an hour. In the end she decided to dress casually and instead wore jeans and a red hoodie. Not the most attractive thing, but it beat having every guy on the block hitting on her.

"You ready?" she asked Cloud nervously.

"Yeah," he said simply. Noticing Elena's nerves Cloud gave a small chuckle. "Don't worry about anything. It's just two friends going out and enjoy dinner together, nothing to get nervous about."

"Yeah," Elena said simply before smiling. "Let's just go and enjoy ourselves."

Dinner itself wasn't much to talk about. Cloud had never been a big fan of sushi, but this restaurant certainly knew how to make a mean Futomaki (whatever that was). The two had made idle banter and had laughed with each other. Elena told Cloud about the costume party Reno once hosted, and how he'd convince Rude to dress as Morpheus… needless to say it hadn't been the most creative costume. Reno himself had gone to the party as Axel… he'd needed a literal gallon of hair gel for that one.

Cloud laughed and told her about the costume party Avalanche had hosted a last year. He still couldn't get over how Yuffie had managed to convince Vincent to go as Jigsaw while the ninja had gone Buffy the Vampire Slayer… two things that still haunted Cloud to this day.

After the meal Cloud, being the gentlemen he was, walked Elena back to her apartment. After bidding her farewell, Elena went inside her apartment and began to talk to herself, almost sorrowfully.

"I only went on this date to forget about Tseng, how'd I end up falling in love all over again? Damn it Cloud, why do you make things so complicated?"

 **A/N** : **I don't own FINAL FANTASY, THE MATRIX, KINGDOM HEARTS, Buffy the Vampire Slayer or the Saw franchise.**

 **Another chapter done. As I said before on my Bio page, I'll be updating this story every other Friday. Whenever I update this story, I'll also update** ** _A Reapers Bullet,_** **one of my BlazBlue fanfics. On the other Friday I'll update** ** _The Grim Reaper and Beastkin_** **and** ** _Devil Bringer._** **I'll post a reminder in each of those stories as well.**

 **Regarding this story, you all thought it was going to be a simple Cloud x Tifa fiction. Well, let's just say it's going to be an interesting turn. Most of you can already figure out what I'm going to be doing, the rest of you will figure it out pretty quickly. Anyways, more fluff and development down the line.**

 **Also, if there's any particular setting you want to see the characters in, leave a suggestion in the comment box. I can't promise to write all of them, but I will take requests.**

 **Rate, Review, and submit your idea's. See you next chapter.**

 **Ciao.**


	8. Rumors and Trust

_Chapter VII: Rumors and Trust_

The lunch bell rang throughout Edge Middle School. Immediately, students were grabbing their textbooks and running for the lunch room; each of them eager to escape another period of their teacher drawling on and on about something they couldn't care less about.

Denzel on the other hand finished the notes he was taking, neatly collected his textbooks, grabbed his lunch from his locker, and made his way to the cafeteria. The students in there were laughing or talking about something or another, so the place tended to get pretty loud. He saw his best friends, Will and Greg, sitting down at their regular spot.

Greg's mother was from Wutai, so he'd inherited her raven black hair and narrow features. Will on the other hand tended to work out more so he had a bit of a bulky build, and had been dyeing his hair a pale blue color.

"Hey guys," he said while sitting down and opening his lunch. Greg gave a small nod in return, Will well…

"How are you able to stay so happy?! That Geometry test we had second period was brutal! It's going to kill my grade for sure!" Denzel gave a nervous laugh as Will continued to flip out over his math exam.

"I'll admit it was a hard test," Greg started, "but I don't think it was that bad, I'll probably wind up with a least a B if I didn't screw up on any of the formulas. What about you Denzel?"

"It wasn't too bad…" Denzel tried to be modest, but…

"How the hell are you able to ace every exam that comes your way!?" Will shouted his complaint while crying about the world's unfairness. (A/N: This sounds familiar somehow…)

"Will's ranting aside," Greg continued, "he's right that you're doing well in all of your classes, top of the class in three of them…"

"Yeah, well I'm getting help…" Denzel gave a small smile. "A lot of help."

"Hey Denzel?" the group heard. They all turned around and saw Jessica. While Denzel and his friends were both second years, Jessica herself was only a first year. The three weren't exactly close with her or anything, but they all knew each other and got along. Jessica had long brown hair, a few shades lighter than Denzel's, and was a bit shorter in height.

"Hey Jessica," Denzel said in response. "What's up?"

"I need to talk to you about something important… in private."

"Anything you say to Denzel you can say to us," Will stated, but Jessica shook her head.

"I'll let him be the judge of whether this is something he can tell you two."

Denzel shrugged as he made his way up. "Watch my lunch, Greg. I'll be back in a second." Greg simply nodded.

As the two walked towards the outside of the lunch room, Denzel heard some obnoxious laughing, comments, and catcalls being tossed his way by some of the third years. _Let them laugh, it doesn't bother me,_ he thought.

When the three were outside the cafeteria Denzel decided to ask, "So what's up?"

Jessica sighed. "It's about Cloud. My mom saw him at a Sushi bar last Friday."

Denzel narrowed his eyes. While Jessica herself was straightforward, honest, and respectful of others privacy, her mother was of a very different nature. Back when Shinra had the support and power it was known for, Jessica's mother was one of Midgar's top journalists. But she hadn't written newspaper articles; she was the top tabloid writer in the city. She had been known for reporting everything to President Shinra's affair to where the First Class SOLDIER's often stayed.

After meteor had fallen, most people started caring less about the lives of others and started focusing more on providing for the city and the people around them, so she'd lost her job as a writer because the demand wasn't there.

HOWEVER, now that Cloud had been revealed to have beaten Sephiroth not only in the Advent battle as it was now known, but also during the original Meteor crisis? She'd been convinced that he'd be her ticket back into the big leagues of reporting. This was why she'd spent so much time at the Seventh Heaven bar; trying to learn about Cloud, take notes, and come up with a huge premier story.

"Let me guess," Denzel said after a moment of silence. "He was with someone other than Tifa?"

"You knew?" Jessica asked surprised.

Denzel rolled his eyes. "He told me what was going on before he left. Elena, that's the girl he was with, just broke up with her boyfriend after they'd been dating for years. I didn't get all of the details, but Tifa told me she was taking it pretty hard. So TIFA suggested that Cloud would take her out, sort of as a 'there are more people out there besides your ex kinda thing.' She actually showed up the Seventh Heaven the day afterwards and she seemed pretty happy, so I guess it went well."

Jessica nodded. "So that's what happened. I just wanted you to let Cloud and Tifa know that my mother was going to try writing a story about it."

"Thanks for the warning," Denzel said thankfully. "I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea and start thinking that Cloud's become some player."

"You really respect him, don't you?" Jessica asked.

"Yeah, I do and more so now. Ever since he defeated Sephiroth he's been a completely different person. He's been helping out more in the bar, tutoring Marlene and I with our homework… he's even started showing me some sword work and taking me mountain biking on his days off."

Jessica nodded, but Denzel wasn't done. "And… I've started calling him dad by mistake."

The reporter's daughter smiled. "At this point, I don't think that's a mistake."

Denzel returned the smile, "I guess you're right."

"We should probably head back; if we don't there may be some new rumors floating around the school."

"Oh, right," Denzel said scratching the back of his head. "Come on then."

As expected, most of the third years were still throwing snide remarks and comments Denzel's way, but it didn't matter to him or Jessica. When he sat back down at the table Will decided to ask, "So what was that about?"

"She just wanted to warn me that her mother might try to make a story off my dad."

"You mean Cloud?" Greg asked.

Denzel shook his head and smiled. "No, I mean my father."

 **Authors Note:**

 **I don't own FINAL FANTASY VII.**

 **First off, it seemed like I gained close to 10 followers the day I announced this would be a harem fiction. That scene I showed in the prologue with future Zack is still canon, but getting there will be the real kicker.**

 **I know this chapter was shorter, but I realized that I hadn't been including Denzel or Marlene at all so I decided to dedicate this chapter for one of the two. If you have an idea for a Marlene chapter feel free to PM me. Not sure what the plan is for next chapter, but I'll keep you posted.**

 **Ciao.**


	9. A President's Legacy

_Chapter VIII: A President's Legacy_

Cloud pulled his bike _Fenrir_ up to the Healin lodge. It hadn't been long since he had been hear last; Rufus Shinra and his Turk guards had greeted him in their usual manner during the Advent crisis. He'd gotten a call from the ex-president a few days ago saying that he'd wanted to talk about something important.

Cloud opened the door to the lodge, as expected Reno tried to attack him with his Electro rod, but a swift punch to the gut sent the Turk sprawling two feet back. The redhead was about to make his way up before Cloud harshly slammed his foot on the Turks chest. Reno groaned for a moment before silencing himself with fear at the look of disapproval in Cloud's eyes.

"I'm getting tired of this," he commented with a cold dead tone, not moving his foot off the Turks chest. He heard the echo of footsteps behind him and saw Reno's partner, Rude approaching him.

"My apologies, he insisted on it."

"Well, next time try to stop him." Cloud said before painfully putting pressure on Reno's chest and removing his foot causing Reno to roll to the side and grip his chest. The Ex-Mercenary wasn't cruel, not by far, but too much had happened between him and the Turks to just let this slide. "Where's Rufus?" he demanded, getting right to the point.

"He's in the back room with Tseng" Rude answered. Cloud narrowed his eyes as he made his way to the door. Rude stopped the Former mercenary by putting a hand on his shoulder. "Don't let your problem with Tseng get in the way of our business. Elena already forgave him, you should as well."

"It's up to him if I can," Cloud said, shoving the Turks hand off his shoulder. He opened the door to the back room and slammed it shut.

Rude looked at Reno and groaned. "You had to put him in a bad mood."

"He's always in a bad mood," Reno said making his way to his feet. "This is our way of saying 'nice to see ya.' You're the one being rude."

"Aren't I always," his partner scoffed at the wordplay.

* * *

The back of the lodge had been remodeled so now the offices back was actually a full sized window, overlooking the vastness of the Healin forest. Rufus sat at his desk, his laptop moved to the side as he crossed his arms like he'd been waiting for Cloud for hours. He'd healed up relatively well from his near fatal encounter with Geo-Stigma and no longer wore medical patches.

Tseng stood off to the side of his boss, while normally emotionless, he gave Cloud a harsh glare which the blonde returned in full. Tseng had crossed Cloud far too many times for the Soldier to be forgiving to this individual Turk. He might've found Reno annoying, but Tseng was almost evil in his eyes.

"Gentlemen, can we please get along with each other. We're only here to deliver a message."

Cloud's glare now focused on the last living Shinra. "You had me cross an ocean to deliver a stupid message? Why didn't you tell me over the phone?"

Shinra gave a demeaning smirk. "You we're the one who was willing to come here, you could have just asked." The former president stood. "I hear you've been contacted by our old Turk worker Cissnei in order to wipe out all of Hojo's old bases."

"Are you going to try and stop us?"

"Not at all, I'm just warning you that I don't know what those laboratories contain. My father never thought it'd been necessary to pass that information to me while I was Vice-President of the company, and I was never informed by that madman directly. Even after looking through the remains of the old Shinra database, I only came across a few entries of Hojo's data which I had initially gain access though with my Presidential password… Do you know what the files said?"

"Get to the point already."

"Hmph, no heart for theatrics, you haven't changed. The documents came up saying that they were restricted. Restricted to even the presidents eyes."

"The password you used…"

"Was my fathers, yes. This tells all of us that Hojo has had completely unrestricted use of Shinra's resources. There's no telling of the seeds he's truly sown. I have the files right here." Rufus unlocked a nearby cabinet before bringing out a high quality hard drive and handing it to Cloud. "What you are holding right now is Shinra. This single hard drive contains all of its activities since it became a worldwide superpower; all of its transactions, all of its developments, all of its projects, everything. I have the security codes for levels one, the standard employee, through ten, the president, but we still have no clue what the password for Hojo's work. The password level has been appropriately labeled X and any attempt to hack into the X mainframe risks deleting all of the data on the hard drive. Be careful, this is the only copy that we have and several organization would be more than willing to kill for this should they find out about it."

Cloud pocketed the device. "Fine, I'll get the device to someone who can hack it, but Rufus?"

"Yes Cloud?"

"If this comes back to harm my family in anyway, I'll wipe you off the face of the planet."

"Noted, and thank you again for cheering Elena. I've noticed a significant increase in her work quality."

"Whatever," Cloud said before walking towards the door.

"You know Cloud, Midgar never officially created a law banning Polygamy, neither has Edge."

The effect on Cloud was just what Rufus had wanted it to be. The Savior turned behind him and looked at Shinra, his face visibly crimson and surprised at what he just heard. "What about it?"

"Just thought I'd let you know," Rufus said allowing himself to grin as his former enemy made his way out of the back room. _I've already dealt the hand, let's see what the cards will say._ He heard Tseng cough beside him and his grin increased. _This is going to be an interesting match of poker._

Cloud made his way out of the back room and forcibly shoved his way past Reno and Rude. When he made his way outside, he didn't even hesitate before accelerating out of Healin. A few minutes on the road his thoughts started to get the better of him. _Why the hell would Rufus bring that up to me, all that happened was a dinner with Elena, ONE dinner. And now he's suggesting this. Tifa's going to kill me when I tell her about this._

 **Author's Note:**

 **I don't own Final Fantasy VII.**

 **I was out of idea's so I kind of came up with this chapter on the fly… does it show? Anyways, I'll be soon be moving on to another story arc. I'm honestly running out of ideas on how to progress the story. Your ideas don't have to be about moving it forward, it can just be a random event or request that you want me to write. I'll get to them as soon as I can. Anyways, rate and review.**

 **Ciao.**


	10. A Hero's Legacy

**Request submitted by Cred1988. Hope you enjoy.**

 _Chapter IX: A Hero's Legacy_

Cloud once again dismounted his bike as he parked it on the outskirts of the lower level of Junon. He remembered when he'd come here before to assess the damage of _Weapon's_ attack, things hadn't looked good, but at least the town was still standing.

Cloud walked through the lower part of Junon heading towards the elevator, normally there was a Shinra guard there that would charge a fee to get to the higher level's, but the guard hadn't been there ever since Shinra's collapse. Now people could travel to the upper level without restriction. The ride always took a while, but Cloud was never in any particular hurry, he'd learned his lesson long ago about rushing things.

The higher section hadn't changed much, some of the shops were different and there weren't too many guards around, but people still went about their business and kept to themselves. Cloud kept his eyes out for trouble, Rufus had warned him that there would be people willing to kill for what he carried, he'd felt it would be better if he dropped it off with someone he could trust. That didn't mean Cloud was travelling unarmed, his completed _Advent Blade_ was one his back in case he encountered trouble.

' _Should be this building_ ' he thought as he looked at the address he'd written down. He walked inside and saw a man sitting down at the front desk looking at his laptop. He had dirty brown hair and sky blue eyes that almost seemed to glow… not unlike Cloud's. He was wearing a dark blue security uniform. As Cloud made his way up to the front desk the man glanced up and regarded the newcomer in surprise.

"Cloud!?" he said. The voice did sound familiar, but Cloud couldn't place it.

"Sorry, do I know you?" he asked.

"Well, it's been quite a while," the man said before digging through the contents of his desk. "Oh, come on! Where is it? I know it's around here somewhere!"

The man had completely dived behind the desk, objects being moved and drawers being opened was heard by Cloud. "Here it is!" the man exclaimed as he placed the object of question on the desk for Cloud to see. It was an old SOLDIER's helmet, a second class one… wait.

"Kunsel?" Cloud asked. He hadn't known the man in question that well when he was an infantryman, but he'd been introduced to the guy by Zack a few times. "So, you're part of MATRIX too?"

"Yeah, I'm head of the security division. Cissnei told me that we'd be having a visitor today, didn't think it'd be you though. Anyways, she's expecting you so head right in."

"Thanks," Cloud said as he made his way into main offices. Kunsel regard him as he left. Back when Cloud was a Shinra infantryman, he'd always been a little uneasy, but now he carried himself like he was ready for anything.

"I guess time really does change a man," Kunsel said as he looked back at his desk… which was now a complete mess from all of the things he brought out while searching for his old helmet. His once clean desk was now ground zero of chaos. "…Crap."

*Inside Cissnei's office*

"Thanks for taking the time to travel all the way here," Cissnei said as she gestured for Cloud to sit, which he did. "Coffee?" she asked. Cloud nodded and took a cup. "You were pretty vague when you said you needed to bring something to our office. So what's the mystery item?"

"Open it and see for yourself," Cloud said simply as he handed Cissnei the bag which she opened.

"Let's see here, an advanced hard drive? Labeling number S-1… wait, this is the Shinra master hard drive!?"

"Now you see why we had to meet in private," Cloud said simply as he sipped his coffee. "I managed to get this from Rufus Shinra, but the reason he gave this to me is pretty concerning." He explained to Cissnei what Rufus had told him about Hojo's unlimited access and his level of security codes.

When he was finished telling Cissnei about his meeting with Rufus, the former Turk put all of the hard drive backing the package. "I'll take this to Jessie and Keith. Working together they've been able to hack into any Shinra tech on the market, given time. Thanks for bringing this to us, we might be able to get some decent leads on Hojo's labs."

"This is going to take some time then; this wouldn't have been on the market and they probably spent a fortune on developing an unhackable program," Cloud said as he set down his cup and stood to leave. He was about to make his way out of the room when the two heard a low growl.

"What the heck is that?" Cissnei asked trying to identify the source. Cloud said nothing, but then the growl was emitted again. Cissnei smiled, she'd found where it was coming from. "I take it you skipped breakfast?"

"Give me a break, I left early, it's not a short drive from Edge," Cloud reminded her.

"Well come on, I'll buy lunch, I know a good pizza place close by," Cissnei offered. Cloud shrugged modestly; pizza was honestly sounding divine to him right now, not that it ever didn't.

"Fine, but what about the hard drive; that's not the sort of thing you can just leave lying around."

"I'll drop it off with Kunsel, he'll get it to Jessie." Cissnei noticed the unsure look Cloud was giving. "Don't worry, Kunsel can be a little clumsy, but he's proven himself for organization when it's mattered most."

"As long as he can handle the possibility of an attack," Cloud said. "Come on, let's go."

"Quite the pushy date aren't you?" Cissnei said giggling as they made the way out of her office. "By the way, how did the date with that Turk go?"

"The date itself went fine; Elena certainly seems to be doing better now" Cloud said as they walked down the hallway. "I just don't like all of the propaganda I'm getting painted with because of it."

"Propaganda?" Cissnei asked.

"Well, aside from Rufus and his theories, I was almost painted as some sort of player by an ex-Tabloid writer in Edge. If Tifa hadn't stepped in and had a word with the writer, that mess would have gone public."

"What did she say to the writer?"

"She won't tell me," Cloud answered. "All I know is that the writer came to the bar the next morning and literally burned the story in front of us… Whatever Tifa said, it was clear she wasn't messing around."

"You think?" Cissnei asked rhetorically as they made their way into the lobby. "Kunsel take this to Jessie and Keith, let them know I'll check in with them after the break." The Ex-Soldier nodded as he grabbed the package. "By the way Kunsel, I thought I asked you to clean your desk this morning. It looks even more cluttered than usual"

"I- uh, had to grab something," Kunsel admitted scratching the back of his head. "Sorry about that, boss."

"Just try to stay organized, alright?" Kunsel nodded in response. "Good I'll see you later.

The two made their way done the streets. The wind had started to pick up some, but that was common in a port town like Junon.

"So how have things been with the kids?" Cissnei asked, trying to make small talk.

"Pretty good," Cloud said. "They're good kids, so that helps. Marlene's been in a better mood ever since Barret finished his oil-rig job and moved back to Edge. She moved back with him about a month ago, but she's happy with him so I'm happy for her."

"What about Denzel?"

"He's been doing fine, but he's been getting into fights lately."

"And you call that fine?" Cissnei asked perplexed.

"If he was the one who started the fights I'd have a problem, but every case has been him standing up to a group of bullies. Honestly, I'm proud of him; he's shown that he knows when to talk and how to fight when talking doesn't work."

"Like father like son, huh?" Cissnei said grinning.

"Doesn't hurt that he's been calling me dad."

"Yeah, well here's the place."

*Inside the Pizzeria*

Cissnei and Cloud had just sat down and ordered their food. Cloud had wanted to talk about a more 'human' topic, but something had been bothering him.

"I'm starting to notice things about Junon I don't think I saw these last two times," Cloud started. "Did the Shinra infantry ever get involved in an operation here?"

"Yeah, there had been an uprising here to commit a prison break."

"A Shinra prisoner, I don't remember hearing about any of that. Who was it?"

"A Shinra professor who was responsible for betraying the company and sending a small army of mechs and biological weapons against Shinra. They weren't the biggest of forces, but they were tough to deal with all the same. Not to mention we only had two first class SOLDIERS at the time."

"Only two?" Cloud asked.

"Yeah, this was before Shinra had changed their requirement policy for second class SOLDIER's to become first class. Shinra's original plans for SOLDIER entailed the first class to be an extremely strong, but exclusive group. But after they lost their last two member, they decided to focus on having more first class soldiers than having more elites. "

"I think I know the answer, but the first class SOLDIER's were-?"

"Zack and Sephiroth. In total there were only four people to ever reach what some people refer to as the true first class status."

"Really, who were they?"

"Besides Zack and Sephiroth, there was a Soldier called Genesis. He had actually defected and became a main opponent during the crisis. The other one was a man named Angeal. He was a stoic man, but was also Zack's mentor."

"Maybe I'll have to look through that hard drive after all. Some of those people could be a list of possible threats. Also, Cissnei?"

"What is it Cloud?"

"Would you mind telling me about the time you've spent with Zack? He was my best friend while I was in Shinra, but I don't feel like I actually knew him that well, even after inheriting his legacy I feel that I only captured part of who he was."

"Well," Cissnei thought to herself. "Zack was actually quite the ladies' man. He actually had an entire fan club devoted entirely to him." She gave a light laugh. "No one realized that I was the one giving the club the information."

"So, you were a fan yourself?" Cloud said with a small smile.

"In a sense, I guess I was."

Their pizza arrived, a traditional pepperoni and cheese.

"You know it's funny," Cloud said as he took a slice for himself. "When I talked to Zack about the clubs, he admitted he was actually a member of four of them, not even including his own. He'd even gotten a subscription from someone who was trying to report on Shinra's wrong doings."

"So everyone knew him?" Cloud asked.

"Yeah," Cissnei said, before looking slightly downcast. "And they were all pretty heartbroken when they found out he died, myself included."

Cloud nodded. He hadn't reacted so well himself when his memories of their escape from the lab had flooded back to him and he found out that his best friend had died.

"You know," Cissnei began. "You're a lot more like him than you give yourself credit for."

"What do you mean?"

"You're willing to help people in need no matter what, you don't enjoy people who put themselves above others, and I've noticed you're both great with kids."

"…Thanks." It was a simple word, but Cloud wasn't the best at portraying his feelings.

*Time Skip*

The two exited the restaurant after paying for their meal and started heading back towards the office.

"Well thanks for lunch," Cloud said. "It was nice."

"No problem, and thanks for the information. This could be the big break that MATRIX has been looking for. Oh, and Cloud?"

"What is it?"

"Don't be a stranger; MATRIX is always happy to see our greatest ally."

"I won't be, but you might want to think about moving to Edge soon, it'll be easier for me to help guard the data that way."

"I'll consider it. Have a safe trip back," Cissnei said.

As Cloud made his way back to the lower levels of Junon, Cissnei made her way back into her office.

"Guess I haven't changed that much. I thought I'd gotten over Zack a long time ago, now I can only think about his living legacy. I need a hobby… either that or a cat to finish the image."

 **Author's Note: You've all heard it enough times, I don't own FFVII.**

 **The end of another chapter. As you could see earlier, this one was sent as a request, hopefully I did a decent job with this one. Not much else to say about it though.**

 **Until next time.**

 **Ciao.**


	11. Cloud the Bartender

**Again, this request was submitted by CRed1988. Hope you enjoy.**

 _Chapter X: Cloud the Bartender_

 _'Friday_ ,' Cloud thought to himself as he made his way out of bed, it wasn't even six yet. ' _Today's, my day off from my delivery run, but I should help Tifa out with the bar today. She's been overworked pretty hard lately, hopefully I can help her have an easier day."_ Cloud was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard coughing coming from downstairs. _'Don't tell me…'_

As Cloud made his way down to the bar, he noticed that Tifa was already trying to wash all of the dishes she'd been too tired to get yesterday. She covered her mouth with her arm as she let loose another violent string of coughing.

Cloud walked over to her and tapped his finger on her shoulder. Tifa turned to Cloud slightly startled as she hadn't been expecting him. Cloud pointed upstairs to Tifa's room. "Get some sleep," he told her. "I'll take the bar today."

"But Cloud," Tifa was about to complain, but her voice had come out as more of a rasp. Only then did she acknowledge that she needed to head back upstairs, she couldn't run the bar and make everyone else sick. "Alright, but I haven't even made the Denzel's lunch yet."

"I'll make him his lunch, alright? I still have plenty of time before we start getting customers. Just try to go upstairs and get some rest, that's your job today Teef. I'll bring you up some breakfast later."

"Sorry," Tifa said as she let out another string of coughs and made her way upstairs.

"Don't be sorry, just get some rest and feel better soon, alright?"

Tifa gave one last smile before she finished heading upstairs. Cloud looked at his first obstacle, the unwashed dishes from last night. He washed his hand and grabbed the washcloth, time to get to work.

About fifteen minutes later, Cloud had managed to get all of the dishes done, and put away. Now to look over that list that Tifa keep under the bar. The list that Tifa kept was there for referencing the types of drinks that the young bartender made. Cloud looked over the list in his hands, making sure to memorize what he could of it for when the customers started to arrive.

"Dad?" Cloud turned and saw Denzel making his way down the stairs. "Good morning."

"Morning," Cloud said. "In case you're wondering, Tifa's not feeling well today, so I'm taking over the bar today. So what do you want for breakfast? Oh, and lunch?"

"I'm fine with cereal, but a ham sandwich and some fruit sounds great for lunch."

"Sure thing kid," Cloud said as he got milk, cereal, and whatever else he needed to make Denzel's lunch. "Hey Denzel, pop quiz. Why won't using ensuna magic cure Tifa's cough?

"That's an easy one," Denzel said as he poured the milk and cereal into a bowl. "It's because a cough is caused by either a cold or a sore throat. Ensuna can only heal effects related to Mako energy. And before you ask me, cure magic wouldn't work because the tissue isn't damaged, it's only irritated."

"Nice job, you're starting to get the hang of this," Cloud said as he continued to make Denzel's lunch. "I'm not going to be able to take you into the badlands today, so you're going to have to study magic if you want any training today."

"Do this mean-?" Denzel started hopefully. Cloud stopped his adopted son, he could already tell what he was going to ask for, given the twinkle in his eyes.

"It means you're looking at the old books and manuals I've got, you'll get your own Materia after and only after I've seen that you know how to use it properly."

"Aw," Denzel said deflated. "I thought I had you there!"

"You've been hanging out with Yuffie too much," Cloud said as he put the sandwich, some fruit, and a water bottle in a brown sack. "Eat your cereal and finish getting ready, I need to make some breakfast for Tifa."

"Yessir," Denzel said and Cloud made his way into the kitchen to make some French toast and orange juice.

By the time he was done making it, Denzel had already left for school. He brought the tray of food upstairs and knocked on the door. After hearing Tifa's non-committed grunt, Cloud slowly opened the door.

"I brought you some food," he said as he laid the tray on Tifa's nightstand.

"Thanks," she said from underneath her covers.

"Try to eat some, alright? I'll check on you in a couple of hours."

After taking a shower Cloud went to his room, where he tried to decide what to wear for today. His Fenrir clothing was out because it'd gotten dusty yesterday and he hadn't managed to run it through the wash yet. Let's see; a pair of black slacks, his white dress shirt, and a black suit vest in for good measure.

"Works for me," Cloud said as he made his way downstairs to finish setting up. He'd just gotten all of the chairs down and the last napkin dispensers restocked when his first customer came in.

"Cloud? I'll admit I'm a bit surprised to find you running the bar," Reeve said as he took off his coat. "Where's Tifa?"

"Upstairs resting, she's not feeling well. What brings you here?"

"I had a meeting early today, so I decided I'd try to stop by and grab breakfast before coming in. If this meeting goes through as planned, I'll be one step closer to being the founder the WRO. You sure you can run the bar?"

"I'll be fine for one day," Cloud assured him. "Coffee?"

"Please," Reeve said as Cloud poured his old friend a mug. "So, how did the meeting with Cissnei go?"

"Well enough, I dropped off the hard drive and we grabbed some pizza. What'll you have for Breakfast?"

"Ham, cooked to medium and scrambled eggs, oh and if you've got any hash browns. I was hoping you could tell me what you thought of their organization."

"They seem to be well organized despite being a small group. They've been working day and night on trying to crack that hard drive, but no luck so far."

"But you trust them?" Reeve asked.

Cloud gave a small chuckle. "If I didn't I wouldn't have given them the hard drive. Why are you interested in them anyways?"

"I was going to make an offer to them to join the WRO. We're in need of whatever members we can get and they seem to have a strong area of expertise across several fields. They're a good group to add to our ranks and our goals seem to be aligned."

"You'd have to ask them, I certainly can't speak on their behalf. I do know that it would be a good idea." With that Cloud make his way into the kitchen to make Reeve's breakfast.

 _'Hard to tell that Cloud and Sephiroth are both considered to be the most powerful beings on the planet,'_ Reeve thought to himself. _'Sephiroth, a person who only cares about gaining knowledge and power through any means possible, and Cloud, who only wants to be a family man. They couldn't be any more different…'_

*Time Skip*

After Reeve had left, business was coming in at a steady pace. Some people turned away from the bar once they realized that Tifa wasn't working, but that was fine for Cloud, he didn't want to serve those types of people. Sadly, the bigger problem was some of the customers he WAS getting. Most of them were the fangirls he'd seen around Edge. When he'd tried to ask them what they had wanted to order, most of them spent a good fifteen seconds staring at the savior, time Cloud could have very well spent getting orders ready for other patrons.

Around five in the afternoon, Cloud left the bar unoccupied for a moment so he could run upstairs to check on Tifa. He gave a small knock on the door, but there wasn't any answer. He slowly creaked open the door and saw that Tifa was fast asleep on her bed. _'At least she's getting some rest,'_ Cloud thought as he made his way back downstairs.

As he headed back downstairs he saw of few of the Seventh Heaven's regulars sitting at the bar enjoy their drinks. "How's Tifa doing?" one of them asked him.

"She's doing fine, just sleeping for now," Cloud said as he wiped down the bar with a wet washcloth. "You guys need more drinks."

"Nah, we're good, but thanks," another man said as they made their way out of their chairs and left their Gil as payment. "Tell Tifa we hope she gets better soon."

"I'll be sure to pass along the message, take care."

As the regulars left, Cloud saw that a new group was about to enter the bar, another type of regulars. _'Not them,'_ he thought.

"Hey gloomy," Reno said as he made his way inside with Rude and Elena. Reno gave a small grin and a chuckle as he sat down. "Nice suit, thinking about becoming a Turk?"

"No chance," Cloud said emotionlessly. Elena seemed a little disappointed with what he'd said, but Cloud didn't pick up on it. "What do you want to drink?"

"Tomberry Spiker, same as I always have," Reno said.

"The same," Rude commented.

"Iced tea for me," Elena said cheerfully.

"Hard iced tea?" Cloud asked.

"No," Elena said shaking her head. "I don't really need any alcohol, just something to drink sounds nice."

"Got it," Cloud said as he turned to grab the drink.

"So Cloud," Reno said trying to make conversation… okay, let's be honest, we all know he's only here to annoy Cloud. "What's Tifa up to now?"

"She's not feeling well so I'm taking over the bar today." Cloud put the drink on the counter noticed Reno with a huge grin on his face. _'Damn it! Wait, what did I say that was so bad?'_

"So, it's morning sickness then?" Reno said as if he was announcing the weather.

All at once the entire bar became silenced, everyone staring with wide eyes at their temporary barkeeper. Reno was giving Cloud a very smug smile as he drank his liquor. _'He's asking for this!'_

"What about it?" Cloud said with a straight face. He really should've though about this plan in more detail because Reno ended up spitting his drink out in surprise right into Cloud's face.

"Wait what!?" the red-haired Turk demanded. There was a thud right next to him and they saw that Elena had passed out.

"Had you going there for a second," Cloud said as he grabbed a new washcloth to wipe off his face. The look on Reno's face was priceless as he just stared at Cloud, his mouth hanging open in shock. The rest of his patrons let out a laugh at Reno's expense.

"You suck," he said to the bar keeper.

"You started it," Rude reminded his partner. "Plus, would it really be that surprising?"

"Well it was enough to send Elena out cold!" Reno yelled.

"Seems like you're pretty busy today," a new voice said as she walked inside.

"What the?" Reno exclaimed as he and Rude made their way up. "Shuriken, what are you doing here?"

"My name is Cissnei," the Ex-Turk said testily. "And I'm here for a drink, not to be harassed by my old co-workers."

"Why you-!" Reno started before slammed his hands down on the table.

"If you want to start a fight here, you should be ready for when I escort you out. I'm not play games here Reno." After he said that, Cloud helped the still unconscious Elena up and seated her at any empty table.

"Well I won't cause any trouble then," Reno said as he finished his drink and put some Gil on the table for payment. "See you around spikey. C'mon Rude"

"Apologies," was all Rude said as he paid for his drinks. "Cloud, when Elena regains conscious can you make sure she gets home safely?"

"Sure thing," he said as the other two Turks left. He then turned to Cissnei. "Sorry, for about that. Can I get you something to drink?"

"Just coffee for me," Cissnei said politely. The bar tender nodded as he prepared a fresh batch. "I guess Reno still can't overlook the fact that I left the Turks after Zack died."

"You moved on just like he should have," Cloud said it was then that Cloud heard Elena stirring from her seat. "Welcome back, and no, what I said to Reno wasn't true."

"Oh," Elena said blushing. "So then Tifa isn't pregnant?"

"No she's not, just a bad cough," Cloud said as he poured coffee for Cissnei. So Cissnei, what brings you all the way to Edge?"

"We decided to take you up on your offer and we're deciding to relocate our operations to Edge. I'm currently here to look at possible venues to set up shop."

"You might want to talk to Reeve then," Cloud advised. "He was thinking about asking MATRIX to join this organization he's been putting together. I can give you his calling card."

"Sounds good," Cissnei said as she took the card. "I have to say, you manage the bar pretty well"

"Tifa taught me a thing or two about running the place," Cloud admitted, "so I already know most of the operations."

"Good thing she has such a willing helper," Cissnei said as she finished her coffee and stood. "Thanks for the tip about talking to Reeve, if what you say's true, this could make our job a lot easier. See you Cloud."

"Take care," Cloud said as she left. He then turned his attention to Elena who got up and took a seat at the bar. "So how's work been going?"

"It's been going better than I thought it would. I'm not awkward around Tseng now that we've broken up for a while, though I've been getting glares from that secretary friend of his from time to time."

"Wonder what her problem is," Cloud said as he again wiped off the bar counter before going to help another group get their drinks.

*Time Skip*

It was after nine and all of the customers had left for the night. Cloud and Denzel had brought Tifa up some warm soup for dinner a while ago, but the Savior decided that now was good time to check up on her and make sure she was still doing alright… that and bring her a little something. Cloud gave a small knock on the door.

"Tifa, you up?" Cloud asked from his side of the door. He heard a grunt form the other side and walked into her room. "I brought you something," he said as he brought down a bowl of ice cream on another serving tray.

"Thanks," she said. Her voice was getting better, but she wasn't completely better just yet. "How was business today?"

"A little busier than usual, even for a Friday, but still manageable," Cloud said as he sat down in a nearby chair with a bowl of ice cream for himself. "How are you feeling?"

"Better, but I might still have to close the bar tomorrow, I'm not sure I'm well enough just yet."

"I can run the bar tomorrow," Cloud promised her. "Trust me, I'm starting to get the hang of this easier than I thought."

"Cloud, you've already done enough to help us, why?"

"Because I care," he said leaning over and giving Tifa a small kiss on the forehead. "Just take it easy, I'll do whatever's needed."

After Cloud left and went downstairs Tifa smiled. True she wasn't in the best condition right now, but the fact remained that she'd never felt happier.

 **Author's Note: I don't own Final Fantasy VII.**

 **Another bit of Family fluff here for all of you. This was yet another tie in chapter, but these events are going to lead to very important ones. Rate and Review.**

 **Ciao.**


	12. Recollection

_After Advent Finale_

 _Chapter XI: Recollection_

"A book club?" Cloud asked. "What made you want to host that?"

"Because all that's been happening lately is work, then a day off with Denzel, I think I should try changing the schedule a little," Tifa said as she wiped down her bar tables. "I don't get that many customers on Saturday night anyways, so that gives me a good time to host it."

"I guess," Cloud said as he finished wiping the last of the glasses. "Well, today's Monday, have you gotten anyone to join?"

"Only a few people, but not bad for my first week. By the way I was hoping you would be willing to join."

"I'm not much of a reader," Cloud admitted.

"C'mon please?" Tifa asked with her best Bambi eyes. "It would mean a lot to me."

"All right, fine," Cloud relented with my arms crossed. "What's our first book?"

"Well," Tifa said with a smile on her face. "By popular demand we decided to start with ' _Fifty Shades of Gr_ -!"

"I'm out."

"Cloud! I was just joking!" Tifa said laughing.

"You ruined it, I'm not joining," he attested stubbornly.

"Cloud can't you take a joke? I know! If you join you get to decide dinner for everyday next week."

Cloud sighed. "Really, now you're trying to bribe me? That seems kind of low…"

Tifa smiled. "As long as it works. Anyways the book that we're reading this week is-!"

"Who said it worked?" Cloud questioned plainly.

"What?" Tifa asked, genuinely shocked. "But I promised you your favorite dinners!"

"No, you just made it interesting," Cloud said with a smug grin. "If you're willing to offer my favorite meals right off the bat, I'm wondering what I could hold out for."

"Oh now you're just playing nasty," Tifa said with a grin on her face, but a dangerous gleam in her eyes. "It's on! By the time I'm done you'll be begging to join!" she declared getting right up in Cloud's face.

"Challenge accepted Teef," he scoffed looking down at the young bar tender, with the same grin on his face.

Upstairs, Denzel was hearing the whole thing as he was writing down the formulas for his math problems. "My mom and dad are strange people," he said to himself shaking his head. "Now let's see, if I take the square root of Y squared and apply the square root to X plus four on the other side of the equation we get…"

*The Next Morning*

Cloud yawned as he his alarm clock went off. It was only 5 in the morning, but he had to awaken and get started on his deliveries. The former savior was about to make his way out of bed, but that was before he noticed an additional weight on his chest. _'What the?'_ Laying on his chest was Tifa's head, her arms were wrapped around his and her eyes were still shut in a peaceful bliss. _'I must've been out of it last night, I didn't even notice her come in. Why is she here anyways? But the real question is how I'm supposed to get out of this.'_

"Tifa, it's time to get up," he said, nudging her slightly. "Tifa?"

"Five more minutes," she said drowsily.

Cloud groaned before trying to get his arm out of his lover's, but he arm was trapped tight in Tifa's classic death hold. _'Great, she's not letting go. Wait, does this have something to do with getting me to join book club? I thought she'd try to bribe me, not blackmail me!'_ Cloud considered his options; he could try tickling Tifa awake, but if he did that he'd likely wake Denzel up and he didn't want to scar his son with this situation this early in the morning (it didn't help that he was shirtless and Tifa was only in her nightgown), so that left option B. Using his free hand he gently repositioned Tifa's head and gave her a passionate kiss on the lips. Tifa's body went rigid at first, not expecting Cloud's current maneuver, before melting into bliss, her grip on her boyfriend's arm loosened just enough for him to pull free.

"Nice try," Cloud said as he ended the kiss and got out of bed. He grabbed his usual Fenrir garb for traveling. "But you're planning didn't get me to join this morning."

"Well worth it," Tifa said with a smile. "Guess I'll just have to think of something else, but I'm surprised you didn't wake up when I came in last night."

"Guess I was pretty out of it," Cloud admitted. "I had to go all the way to Junon in order to deliver a present to a bachelor party and then after that I had to round up a group of escaped Chocobo's."

"At least you visited with the family," Tifa said smirking.

"Ha, ha," Cloud said mildly amused. "Anyways I'll be going to Junon again today so don't expect me back until late."

"I got it, I'll see you later tonight," Tifa said giving a small peck on Clouds cheek. As she opened the door and exited Cloud's room she noticed Denzel had woken up early today and was just standing there, staring at her. "Uh, Denz?"

The young man shook his head. "I'm taking the first shower, just so that I can forget about this," he grumbled under his breath as he entered the bathroom.

"Good job," Cloud said sarcastically as he passed Tifa. "Sun's not even up and you already broke our son."

"Couldn't you have waited until I spent the weekend at Barret's?!" the youth demanded from the other side of the door. "Dad, can you please join the stupid book club so I don't have to wake up like this every morning?"

"Still holding out!" Cloud called out cheerfully as he went downstairs to get breakfast. He smirked as he heard his son's distressed groan.

*Time Skip*

Cloud's trip did NOT go as easy as he'd planned it. Not only did he have to find a swarm of Midgar Zoloms, but the delivery was actually meant for a bachelorette party. Add in the fact that the girls there were convinced that he was supposed to be their striper forcing him to book it out of that scene and you have a pretty crappy day.

He pulled his bike up to the Seventh Heaven bar and dismounted. The second run in with the Zoloms had cost him quite a bit of time so the bar had closed for the night. He walked inside and was greeted with a godly sight. A cheeseburger, but not just any cheeseburger, one topped with bleu cheese and fried onion strips topped, on homemade sesame buns with Tifa's secret sauce on it. On the side was some homemade garlic French Fries, and a bottle of his favorite brand of Nibelhiem beer. And on a plate next to that? A plate of fresh made, just out of the oven, double chocolate fudge cookies. All of this on the bar in front of Tifa, the bartender with a knowing grin on her face.

Cloud was about to make a mad dash for the food in front of him, but that was before he saw Tifa reach behind the bar and take out a… TV dinner tray? That didn't make much sense a first, Tifa refused to buy those tasteless things for any occasion, but then she asked, "So Cloud, which option would you like for dinner?"

*Cue _One Winged Angel_ *

 _'No,'_ Cloud thought his eyes growing wide. He knew Tifa would being willing to stoop in order to get what she wanted, but he hadn't imagined she'd go this far. "Tifa, can't we talk about this?"

"Option A," she said almost sadistically, gesturing to the TV dinner. "Or…" she began picking the burger up and taking a large bite out of it. "… Option B?"

 _'She can't be doing this to me!'_ Cloud practically shouted in his head. "Tifa, I-!"

"Option 1," she said, again gesturing to the frozen spaghetti TV diner. "Or option 2?" she took a small handful of garlic French Fries and chowed down on them without mercy.

"Tifa! Let's talk about this!" Cloud begged.

"Option 'Don't Join'," she said referring to the TV dinner a third and final time. "Or…" she grabbed one of the cookies in her hand. "Option 'Jo-?"

"I'LL JOIN! I'LL JOIN!" Cloud screamed, announcing his surrender. Tifa grinned as she put the cookie back on its platter and pushed the home cooked meal towards Cloud.

"Good choice Cloud," she said scuffling the blonde's hair as he sat down and tore into his food with gusto. "Now I can get rid of this thing," she said grabbing the TV tray and promptly putting it in the trash.

*End Horror Theme*

"You're sadistic Tifa," Cloud commented between bites.

"Yeah, well you started this war, don't blame me when I start fighting back," she said smiling before placing a book in front of Cloud. "Anyways, this is the book we're reading this week, so get started on it."

Cloud looked over the book and almost spewed out what he was eating. The title of the book read, ' _Journey of the Mako Warriors'_ and there was a picture of the entire gang on the front. _'A documentation of our travels,'_ Cloud thought to himself. _'Did Reeve write this?_ ' That was before he saw who had wrote it and cringed.

"Remember Cloud," Tifa said. "No backing out on a promise."

Half way through the first chapter Cloud knew only one thing; he was going to MURDER Yuffie the next time he saw her.

*Time Skip*

Cloud wasn't sure to weather to be grateful or to hate the world when Saturday night arrived in what seemed to be the shortest week of his life. He'd read the book, all of it. He was helping Tifa set up for her book club when the door opened and he was greeted by two very familiar ladies. _'Don't tell me they joined.'_

"We're here for the Book Club!" Elena said cheerfully as Cissnei sighed behind her.

 _'Of course,'_ Cloud thought to himself. "So who are we waiting on?" he asked Tifa.

"This is it actually," Tifa said as she poured iced tea for all of them. "It's just the four of us for now, but we can get more members later."

"Sure whatever," Cloud said as everyone sat down. "So how do we open this?"

"Well let's just start by saying that not everything you read in this book is real. Yuffie took more than her fair shares of creative liberties."

"Oh," Cissnei said thoughtfully. "So chapter 47 didn't really happen?"

Tifa and Cloud didn't answer that, the two just blushed and refused to make eye contact. Elena in her innocence turned the book to the chapter in question for a recap. She looked at the book for a moment and froze, just staring at it.

"Elena?" Cloud asked. That was when the other blonde toppled out of here chair, fainting from the shock. "Not again…" Cloud groaned. "And to get this out of the way before anyone asks chapter 56 was total bull! I did not spend the better part of fifteen minutes staring at Sephiroth's chest, that was Yuffie, hence the details she went into."

"All right then," Cissnei said turning to a random section in the book. "What I'm curious about is chapter 25 when you met Vincent, did you really find him underneath the old mansion in a casket?"

"Yeah, that's actually how it happened," Cloud admitted. "It was pretty creepy, but he proved to be an invaluable fighting asset… and a good friend."

"Huh, well that's interesting. I take it that Yuffie didn't actual end up landing the final attack?"

"Actually she did," Tifa admitted. "But that was only in his first form. After we were done with that, I don't know what happened, but three of us went to some sort of alternate reality."

"What happened there?" Cissnei asked.

Cloud shook his head. "The details are sketchy, but I know that I was there only with Tifa and Vincent. It was a hard fight and… Sephiroth pulled out an attack that still gives me nightmares to this day."

"What was that?" Elena said sluggishly, slowly making her way up.

"He… I don't know how it was possible, but he actually managed to create a supernova, or at least an illusion of one. Its pain was worse than you could ever imagine, it brought all of us close to death and inflicted all of us with every ailment imaginable."

"Did he ever use his other technique?" Cissnei asked. "I had heard he could use a technique called 'Heartless Angle' to bring one of his opponents down within an inch of life."

"Yeah, but I think he mastered it; he was able to use it on all of us." Tifa shook her head. "It felt impossible, but we eventually managed to win."

"Let's talk about something more interesting, like chapter 16," Cissnei decided. "Did you really have to save a ten year old girl by giving her CPR?"

Again, Elena passed out in her seat. Cloud glared at the red head. "At this point, I think you're doing this on purpose."

"Eh, maybe," Cissnei said shrugging.

*Time Skip*

It was close to two hours later and Cloud and Tifa were laying on Cloud's bed, just lying next to each other not saying anything. "So how was it?" Tifa asked.

"Still going to kill Yuffie," Cloud told her. "I'm just glad we never told her about what happened in sector six."

"Is that the part when you had to-?" Cloud stopped Tifa with a glare. "Right, never speak of it again, sorry."

"I'm choosing the next book alright? You owe me for this."

"Fine, what's your choice then?"

"Let me get it," Cloud said as he walked over to his desk and grabbed a certain sheet of paper, he handed it to Tifa who struggled to read it in the light.

" _Forget the Past, Remember your Family,_ " she read aloud. "A novel about realizing the greatest part of your life was there the whole time. Written by-?" she stared at the paper completely shocked. "Cloud, you're writing a book!?"

"It's more of a journal, but I figured it'd be a place to start. I was kind of hoping I could coax you and the girls to help me editing the thing. It's nowhere near finished, but then again, I'm not finished either." He simply smiled as he fished something out of his drawer. "So what do you think?"

"I think it's a great idea! Let's see here, _'Dedicated to my son Denzel and Tifa, my wi-_ " she stopped at that last sentence. Was that a typo? "Cloud you called me your wife," Tifa said, looking up from the paper.

In front of her was Cloud, kneeling on one knee, an opened box in his hands, inside was the most beautiful diamond Tifa had ever seen. "I know I'm assuming a lot," Cloud began, his cheeks tinged with crimson. "But I need to ask you, Tifa Lockhart will you make me the happiest man on Gaia and let me have the joy and honor of being your husband?"

"Yes," Tifa said so softly it was barely heard by Cloud. "Yes Cloud Strife, I will."

Then the two fiancées embraced each other in a long kiss. Once they were done Tifa gave Cloud a suggestive look. "Well Denzel's over at Barret's, do you think we could celebrate?"

"Chapter 47?" Cloud asked with a suggestive grin of his own. It was a good thing the two had all day to sleep in tomorrow, they weren't about to get any sleep tonight.

 _End of the After Advent Arc_

 **Authors Note: I don't Final Fantasy VII.**

 **I guess you guys weren't expecting that proposal. Not to worry, the harem is still happening, Tifa is just the first person to make it official. This is probably the closest I've come to writing raunchy material. Anyways, leave a review and let me know what you thought.**

 **You guys have been great! I look forward to seeing all of you in Arc 2!**

 **Storm VII signing off!**

 **Ciao**


	13. Two Minutes

**Authors Note: I done own FFVII.**

 **Huh, maybe I should take a look at my view count…**

 **IT'S OVER NINE THOUSANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNND!**

 **Wait, now it's over ten thousand. Never mind.**

 **But seriously you guys are awesome! Thanks for reading my story! Here's the first chapter of the second arc!**

 **Arc Two: Forgotten Legacy**

 _Chapter XII: Two Minutes_

It had been only two weeks since Cloud Strife's proposal to Tifa Lockhart. The newly engaged couple had told their friends the day after the proposal and everyone had congratulated them and was supportive… save for Vincent Valentine. The former experiment hadn't been heard from by any of the old Avalanche members for some time now. They'd sent him a message on his new cell phone in order to inform him of the news, but the most that they'd gotten from him was a text message that said 'Good luck.'

While Yuffie was determined to find him and 'kick some sense into his brain through his ass,' the rest simply took this as a sign of Vincent just being Vincent. Plus, Cloud knew that Vincent hadn't exactly had an easy past life, so he decided it would be better for him to work this issue out on his own. Of course, convincing Yuffie of that sometimes proved to be difficult.

In other news, Reeve had talked with Cissnei and together they'd managed to form a new organization called the World Regenesis Organization or the WRO for short. The group's main concern was finding potential threats to the planet and eliminating them. They also provided security for underdeveloped parts of the world.

Cloud was also considered to be a large part of the organization. The so-called savior of the world had taken a part time job training the new recruits. For that job, he worked alongside Kunsel who was given the rank of commander within the organization. The new recruits were shaping up rather well, especially with the high powered guns and improved potions.

Cloud and Kunsel also worked together on the battlefield from time to time. Their jobs mainly entailed clearing out any of Shinra's old labs that the company managed to uncover or clearing out some of the growing hordes of monsters. Cloud would have thought that these monsters would have started going into decline, but sadly this wasn't the case.

The WRO was also heavily focused on the other part of their planning, trying to hack the Shinra hardrive's X files. The group had been working on it for months, but with no results. Everything it looked like they were getting close with a gap in the systems security, a back-up security code threatened to wipe all of the data on the hard drive.

Currently, Cloud and Kunsel were watching the troops get in some of their target practice. Their aim was looking pretty decent, but their rate of fire was pretty low. That was to be expected though, the guns were still considered prototypes and Jessie was devoting any time she didn't spend working on the hard drive to both increase the rate of fire of the on the weapons and decreasing the backlash that they gave off. Considering the troops were able to aim so well even though the guns weren't completely developed was feat in itself.

"Hold your fire! You're done for the day!" Kunsel shouted. The sounds of gunshots quickly ceased as the troops started to fill out of the shooting range. "Take those guns back to the R&D storage rooms, and make sure you put the right guns in their labeled lockers!"

"Sir!" the troops shouted as they saluted and started walking off leaving the Cloud and Kunsel to observe the targets and take notes.

"Looks like we've got a lot of improvement form James on his aiming. Last week he was barely hitting the edge of the target and now he's hitting the second ring every time he's not nailing the bullseye."

"Jane seems to be improving as well," Cloud noted, both aloud and on paper. "She still isn't firing as fast as the other members, but her shots are always dead center."

"As for Jack…" Kunsel started. "Damn this is boring! Why do we have to do evaluations?"

"Someone has to," Cloud began before getting a smug grin. "Of course you could always trade jobs with Larry the janitor if you wanted. I hear he's supposed to be cleaning the bathrooms today."

"Meh, it's not THAT boring," Kunsel admitted causing the two to laugh. With all of the work the two had done recently their friendship had grown pretty quickly. "Hey, you want do some sparring practice after this?"

"Normally I'd say yes, but I need to get going pretty soon." Cloud groaned.

"Oh right, Saturday night book club," Kunsel said with a grin. "What did the girls rope you into this week?"

"Moby Dick," Cloud said with a sigh. "I still don't know how the hell Elena picked that book out."

"And you actually managed to read it?" Kunsel asked with a whistle. "You're more tolerant to pain than I thought, or at least a long ass story."

"Actually I just looked up a summary last night on my laptop," Cloud admitted as he closed his notebook. "I'm going to be winging it this time around."

"Don't worry, I won't tell Tifa," Kunsel assured him.

"Wouldn't matter if you did, I caught her looking up a summary this morning."

"Seriously, Tifa? Well I can understand a troublemaker like you Cloud, but an innocent young lady like Tifa?" Kunsel said mocking. "I swear, you're a bad influence on her."

"I wouldn't exactly say that," Cloud said with a smile as they passed by the Janitor. "Hey Larry." The man gave a friendly smile and nod towards them. "You remember that prank that we pulled on Yuffie at our engagement announcement?"

"You mean the screaming voice recorder in the pudding?" Kunsel asked. "You told me that you were the one who did it to get back at her for writing that awful book."

"Yeah, well Tifa's the one who came up with that little ploy, she even managed to record Yuffie's reaction and send it to everyone else in Avalanche."

"Wow, she's more of a schemer than I thought," Kunsel admitted. "And here I thought that the most she was capable of was forcing you to join a book club through food."

"First off," Cloud began, preparing to defend himself. "I was starving, that alone weakened me. Second off, you didn't see the food she made. Third, she threatened me with a TV dinner!"

"Oh, wow, yeah," Kunsel said sarcastically. "I should probably inform Cissnei that we're going to want to hire Tifa for our master strategist; the woman who managed to outmaneuver Cloud Strife and got him to join a book club with the most thought out plan imaginable to man."

"Shut it Kunsel," Cloud said as they walked along the hallway. _'Some friend he is,'_ Cloud thought with a smirk as his comrade proceeded to laugh at him.

"Anyways since you've got to get going I can take that folder to Jessie for you," Kunsel offered.

"Thanks, but I'm taking Cissnei to book club and I heard she's in the decryption room with Jessie and Keith for a weekly check-in. I swear," Cloud started as he opened the door to the decryption room. "That hard drive is giving us more trouble than it's worth."

"See? He agrees," Keith said from where he was seated with Jessie and Cissnei behind him. "We've been trying to hack this thing for ages when we really need to be focusing on data we retrieved from those other databanks."

"If we could," Cissnei said with a sigh. "Every databank we've come across has been completely destroyed in some fashion and I think Hojo was doing it before he died to cover his tracks."

"But to cover his tracks to what?" Kunsel asked aloud. No one answered. "Well I can't imagine him programing a code this advanced."

"He couldn't have," Cloud said as he handed Jessie his notes from the shooting range. "I managed to sneak a look at Hojo's works and he's no computer programmer. Shinra must've hired someone else to do it."

"So we find the programmer, we could find a way in," Keith said. "Well lord knows we need it. I can't get past a tenth of the encryptions without the system threating to take over. The only other way inside is the password, but if you don't get it right in three tries it deletes the entire file."

 _'Hojo wasn't messing around when he made the system,'_ Cloud noted. _'Though I can't imagine a madman like him taking the time to memorize a… wait a moment.'_

"Let me try something," he offered. Keith sighed as he cleared the way for Cloud to access the keyboard. "Let's see here..." the savior did a few quick button punches.

"WELCOME BACK PROFESSOR HOJO," the computer said to Cloud emotionlessly. Everyone looked at Cloud with the look of awe on their face.

"How in the-?" Keith looked at Cloud emotionlessly. "What did you do!?"

"I entered the password," Cloud said. "It was actually easier to figure out. Hojo's insane, he's completely dedicated to his science. He wouldn't take the time to create and memorize a complicated password."

"Well okay sure," Kunsel agreed. "But how did you know what his password was?"

"Simple," Cloud said with a knowing smirk on his face. "I simply typed in 'password'."

The rest of the group said nothing, they could only stare at the man with their eyes wide. Cloud had solved a problem their top hacker were going at for months by only guess!?

Cloud checked his cell phone. "We should probably get going soon, Cissnei. Book club's going to start in a few."

"Y-Yeah," Cissnei said, still a little unnerved with what Cloud had just done in the span of two minutes.


End file.
